If the Musharraf government ever needed American support as a morale booster in these difficult times, then it was not in short supply this Wednesday. Clearly departing from the position taken by the European Union, Commonwealth and the United Kingdom, the visiting US Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte tried to trivialise the forced expulsion of Nawaz Sharif as a non-event for his government.
"It is an internal Pakistani political and legal matter and it's for the government and the people of Pakistan to decide", he said at the news conference he jointly addressed with Foreign Secretary Riaz Muhammad Khan. But he did have a suitable expression with regard to his government's abiding interest that Benazir Bhutto should get behind the embattled Pervez Musharraf.
In the elections, which, he said, would be held quite shortly, "we think it's important there be a smooth and democratic transition". The New York Times says these words stand for Washington's backing of the on-going behind-the-scenes Musharraf-Bhutto contacts. Presidential aide Tariq Aziz's meeting in Kabul a day before must have helped Negroponte construct an aptly nuanced expression of US support for the government-PPP parleys.
Exceedingly hyped political rhetoric being the backdrop, the importance of the much-delayed second round of Strategic Dialogue between Pakistan and the United States figured as a low key affair. Ironically, the increasing cooperation between the two countries in the war on terror is more than counter-balanced by the growing mismatch of their perceptions and actions in almost all other areas of common interest.
That Pakistan, the most-allied ally of the United States, be subjected to periodic certification of progress in fighting militants to receive future American assistance, is highly disappointing to an average Pakistani. The visiting official's assurance that "I don't think there's going to be any difficulty in making that kind of certification" is too simplistic to be taken seriously by the Pakistanis.
Equally obfuscating was his reply when asked about the threats of unilateral strikes inside Pakistan uttered by US officials and some presidential hopefuls. "If we intend to carry out whatever activities we do in the tribal areas there will be complete respect for the sovereignty of Pakistan". And, Pakistan's complaint of being discriminated against in the sphere of peaceful use of nuclear technology is said to have been drowned by loudly voiced fear of nuclear proliferation.
The day John Negroponte and his team were having a strategic dialogue with their Pakistani hosts in the Foreign Office, the people outside were greatly enthralled by the results of an opinion poll conducted by the Terror Free Tomorrow, a Washington-based anti-terrorism outfit. It says in Pakistan Osama Bin Laden is more popular than President Musharraf and only 18 percent of Pakistanis believe that defeating al Qaeda and Taliban should be the long-term goal of Pakistan government. But, at the same time, 75 percent respondents said that suicide bombings "are rarely or never justified".
In plain words, this means that while majority of Pakistanis don't consider al Qaeda and Taliban to be terrorists, they do reject acts of terrorism like suicide-bombings. Surrender of some three hundred members of security forces in tribal areas, said to be due to their reluctance to fight fellow Muslims, was yet another incident that provided an interesting backdrop to the strategic dialogue.
The dialogue being an ongoing structured process of engagement between the two countries, the current round of meetings was planned much earlier. The widely held view, however, is that the US official was here to rally support for the Musharraf-Bhutto deal.
He may not have been very realistic in downplaying the deportation of Nawaz Sharif, but one would not contest his argument that Pakistan should opt for "a smooth and democratic political transition". Of course, transition from a quasi-military regime to a democratic dispensation is essential, but equally essential is that it should take place amid an ambience of national reconciliation.