During the 1980s, Pakistan received about $25 billion (a conservative estimate) from various sources and most of these resources were totally unencumbered. Every country in the so-called free world as well as China was giving us generous assistance in cash and kind throughout this period in return for the ’services’ we were rendering to the US in its war against the Soviet Union in Afghanistan. During this period, Pakistan was getting at least $3 billion on an average annually in remittances from overseas workers, who would send another $3 billion in kind as well every year. One recalls a State Bank of Pakistan circular in those days which had asked NCBs not to make public the amount of remittances they were receiving from overseas Pakistanis. When enquiries were made to find out why this circular was issued, it was explained in hushed tones that the government did not want the multilateral agencies to know how much we were getting from this source. The reasons for this secrecy were obvious.
Meanwhile, in those days Pakistan was one of the major producers of poppy and was siphoning off weapons from supplies going through Pakistan to the Afghan ’jihadis’ and selling them in the open market. The Ojhri camp incident is quoted as evidence of the post-Afghan war cover-up of this trade. However, when Ziaul Haq died in August 1988, there was nothing on the ground to show where all these resources had gone. The then caretaker finance minister, Dr. Mehbubul Haq, had to rush to the IMF for emergency assistance to save the country from certain default. The assumption, therefore, is that most of the resources, legitimate as well as illegitimate, that we received during the period of the ’free lunch’ were pissed away siphoned off and were spent on our nuclear programme. The total amount spent on the bomb, the missiles and the two-low intensity conflicts would certainly be more than $10 billion - more likely about $15 billion. The rest (from the $25 billion) was perhaps pocketed by the people who ran the first Afghan war from Pakistan on behalf of the US and the CIA.
| That would make Qazi and Fazl and Sami very rich men, indeed... |
Many in the world and even inside the country wonder why, after having established that Dr A.Q. Khan was the main source of proliferation over the last so many years, the international community led by the US is not blaming this country or its government. The reason is simple. The US in its present war against terrorism needs us as badly as it did in the 1980s when it was fighting the Soviets in Afghanistan. It was during this period that we were trying to acquire nuclear capability. The US knew about it. And like now, then too the US media would frequently run stories about our covert nuclear activities. In fact in 1985, we told the world ourselves that we had perfected a basement bomb. Dr. A.Q. Khan had claimed in a secretly arranged interview to an Indian journalist (of all persons) that he had cold tested a device. On November 1, 1986, The Washington Post ran a banner headline saying Pakistan had hot tested its device. This story was filed by Bob Woodword of Watergate fame, whose connection with the then CIA chief William Casey was revealed by Woodword himself in his book The Veil. Meanwhile, successive US presidents were giving us certificates (under the Pressler amendment) that we were not making the bomb. Like now, then too the US administration had ostensibly disagreed with its own media because it needed our help in Afghanistan. But, intriguingly, at the same time, as today, the CIA was also leaking to its media in the 1980s stories about Pakistan’s nuclear programme. Why? Perhaps to keep India from threatening Pakistan’s security at a time when its army is engaged in Afghanistan.
Today the situation is different. India has become a good friend of the US. So, before implicating Pakistan publicly in the nuclear proliferation scandal, using the Khan angle, the US saw to it that tensions between India and Pakistan were replaced by a peace initiative. Apparently, the US has managed to keep Pakistan free of worries on the southern borders while Washington keeps us engaged in the north. Its forces are likely to remain in the region for another 10 to 15 years. During this period at least, Washington is not likely to see anything happen to Pakistan. But let us keep our fingers crossed at least for the next couple of years. |