ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani has said that continuing to work
with the United States could imperil his government, unless Washington takes
drastic steps to restore trust and win over 180 million Pakistanis.
In an exclusive interview with TIME — his first since the raid that killed
Osama bin Laden — PM Gilani warned of trust deficit between US and Pakistan.
Alternating between Urdu and English, the Prime Minister said cooperation
between the CIA and its Pakistani counterpart, the ISI (Inter Services
Intelligence), had broken down, and that Washington and Islamabad differed on
how to fight terror and forge an exit strategy in Afghanistan. He did, however,
for the first time publicly offer to support U.S. drone strikes inside Pakistan,
provided that Pakistan was in on the decision making.
Gilani warned that his government was accountable to an electorate
increasingly hostile to the U.S. "I am not an army dictator, I’m a public
figure," the Prime Minister told TIME, speaking at his palatial hilltop
residence in Islamabad. "If public opinion is against you [referring to his U.S.
allies] then I cannot resist it to stand with you. I have to go with public
opinion." While the bin Laden debacle has raised calls in Washington to pressure
Pakistan for more cooperation, in Islamabad the it has raised further hostility
towards the U.S.
Speaking of the Abbottabad raid, Gilani said, "Naturally, we wondered why
they went unilaterally. If we’re fighting a war together, we have to work
together. Even if there was credible and actionable information, then we should
have done it jointly." Addressing his parliament on Monday, Gilani had warned
the U.S. against further such strikes on its soil.
The Prime Minister said that he was first alerted to the raid through a 2
a.m. call from Pakistan’s Army Chief, General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani. Gilani then
called his foreign secretary and asked him to demand an explanation from U.S.
Ambassador Cameron Munter. "I have not met or spoken to [U.S. officials] since,"
he complained. "Whatever information we are receiving is from the media. Today,
we have said that we want them to talk to us directly."
While opposition politicians have pilloried as an intelligence fiasco the
revelation that bin Laden had lived, undetected, in Abbottabad, Prime Minister
testily pushed back against suggestions that his government had caved into the
military by allowing it to hold an internal inquiry into the affair, rather than
enforce civilian oversight. "We are all on the same page," Gilani said, with an
air of finality.
The deepening rift between Washington and Islamabad also casts a shadow over
Afghanistan, where their cooperation is vital to enable a U.S. exit strategy.
Gilani emphasized his strengthening links with Afghan President Hamid Karzai and
the many bonds that unite the two peoples. But that doesn’t necessarily
translate into support for the U.S. strategy there.
"In our discussions with Karzai, we came to an agreement that terrorists are
our common enemy. We both have suffered; we both have made sacrifices. So we
have decided to unite to fight against them." To prove this recent intimacy,
Gilani showed off a beautifully carved, single-slab lapiz lazuli coffee table
top, encased in velvet. "It was a gift from Karzai," he said. "It arrived a week
ago."
Despite his rapprochement with Karzai, Gilani acknowledges his abiding
"difference of opinion" with Washington on how best to fight militancy. "From
day one, my policy has been the three Ds: dialogue, development and deterrence,"
Gilani said. "The first time I shared my strategy with President Bush, it
sounded Greek to him. Today, the whole world is toeing the same line." In that
vein, he criticized the U.S. surge in Afghanistan: "Military solutions cannot be
permanent solutions. There has to be a political solution, some kind of exit
strategy."
Gilani favors a political solution to the conflict next door, led by the
Afghans. "It should be owned by them and be on their own initiative," the Prime
Minister said. He saw Pakistan’s role as that of a "facilitator". U.S. officials
have routinely criticized Pakistan for allowing Afghan Taliban leaders and
fighters to operate from its soil.
As its ties with Washington fray, Pakistan is strengthening its regional
relations. Gilani recently visited India; next week, he will travel to China.
But the Prime Minister rejects any suggestion that Pakistan will compensate for
any cooling of U.S. support by drawing closer to China. "We already have a
stronger relationship with China," he said. "It’s time-tested." At the same
time, he didn’t believe Washington was really going to cut aid. If it did, he
said, "We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it."
Gilani does, however, fear that a deteriorating relationship with Washington
could hurt Pakistan’s fight against domestic militancy. "When there’s a trust
deficit," he said, "there will be problems in intelligence sharing." Asked about
the reason for this trust deficit, Gilani replied tersely, "It’s not from our
side. Ask them."
The most glaring, and worrying example of the breakdown for Gilani is in the
working relationship between the CIA and the ISI. "Traditionally, the ISI worked
with the CIA," he said. Now, "what we’re seeing is that there’s no level of
trust." Relations have deteriorated sharply since last November when the local
CIA station chief was outed, allegedly by the ISI — a charge the agency denies.
They hit a low point amid the standoff over Raymond Davis, a CIA contractor who
killed two Pakistani men in a January incident and then claimed diplomatic
immunity. Further strain has been caused by the CIA’s covert drone strikes
against suspected militants in the tribal areas along the Afghan border.
(Pakistan Might Have Been Cheating on the U.S., but Don’t Expect the Marriage to
End.)
Gilani says the drone war weakens his efforts to rally public support for the
fight against extremism. "No one can win a war without the support of the
public," he said. "I say that this is my war, but when drones strike, the people
ask, ’Whose war is this, then?’ " Still, Gilani said — for the first time,
publicly — that he was open to renegotiating the terms of the CIA’s program.
"A drone strategy can be worked out," Gilani said. "If drone strikes are
effective, then we should evolve a common strategy to win over public opinion.
Our position is that the technology should be transferred to us."
Still, he added, he would countenance a policy in which the CIA would
continue to operate the drones "where they are used under our supervision." That
statement marks a departure from Pakistan’s frequent public denunciations of
drone strikes as intolerable violations of sovereignty.
Despite his constant references to the trust-deficit, Gilani hoped to see a
restoration of closer ties with Washington, but put the onus on Washington to
gain the support of Pakistani citizens. "They should do something for the public
which will persuade them that the U.S. is supportive of Pakistan," he said. As
an example, he enviously cited the 2008 U.S.-India Civil Nuclear Agreement.
"It’s our public that’s dying, but the deal is happening there," the prime
minister said, adopting a wounded tone.
"You claim there’s a strategic partnership? That we’re best friends?" Casting
his eyes up at his chandeliered ceiling, Gilani reached for a verse. "When we
passed each other, she didn’t deign to even say hello," he intoned, quoting the
Urdu poet Mirza Ghalib. "How, then, can I believe that our parting caused her
any tears?" Online
