I AM going to say it again: not in my name, your shenanigans (for there is no better word for what you do), sirs; not in mine or in that of the other luckless Pakistanis who try to live honourable lives and endeavour to feed and clothe and educate their children as best they can.

Every week brings forth new and newer allegations which only hurt our country evermore as if it was not wounded enough already. The newest news is the arrest of Ghulam Nabi Fai the head of the Kashmir American Council, supposedly working for the cause of the Kashmiri people.

Before I go any further let me quote from an article by Khalid Hasan who was a Kashmiri in his heart and soul and who wrote so eloquently and wisely on Kashmir and its pain. Khalid lived in the Washington D.C. area for many years immediately preceding his untimely and sad death and was deeply involved in Kashmir-related activities across the world.

In August 2006, writing about Sardar Abdul Qayyum Khan’s visit to Washington, Khalid Hasan says: “Asked what he thought of the recent Kashmir Conference held in Washington where the sponsor, the Kashmiri-American Council, refused to include any reference to self-determination in what it grandiloquently called ‘The Washington Declaration’, Sardar Qayyum, whose political acumen and skill even Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto acknowledged, replied, ‘If you take out the right of self-determination from the struggle of the Kashmiris, you are left with nothing. So how can you cast it aside?’

“When someone said that it was Dr Ghulam Nabi Fai who had seen to it that the final document issued by the Conference in controversial circumstances should carry no reference to self-determination, Sardar Qayyum smiled wanly and said, ‘What can I say? What Fai does is not on his own’. What he left unsaid is clear and it is time those who back operations that do a disservice to the Kashmir cause rather than advance it, were to re-examine their conduct and reassess their erroneous assumptions.”

He also wrote: “The links between the Council and certain sponsored Kashmir outfits in London, Toronto and Brussels are too well known for me [to make] a listing here. It is time this charade was brought to an end and the agencies (or more accurately The Agency) masterminding them were to begin to concentrate on the work for which it/they were originally set up. It is quite clear that unless the ‘Invisibles’ get out of the act, we will keep sinking deeper into the morass in which we find ourselves. The damage done, some feel, is already beyond repair, so let The Boys pick up their hats and their gadgets and leave by the nearest exit without saying goodbye.”

Now then, before the Ghairat Brigades get into an almighty lather in the matter of Fai’s arrest let them take two deep breaths and digest this:— Dr Fai is an American national who holds dual nationality of India.

— He did not declare himself to be an agent of a foreign government (Pakistan) and therefore was outside the pale of the law when large payments were allegedly traced to him through emails and sworn testimony.

— The law’s spirit is: “The Foreign Agents Registration Act (Fara) of 1938 requires persons acting as agents of foreign principals in a political or quasi-political capacity to make periodic public disclosure of their relationship with the foreign principal, as well as activities, receipts and disbursements in support of those activities.”

Dr Fai is in jail pending trial.

Now then, since he is a US citizen, what got into our Foreign Office to issue a démarche to the US embassy — taken so seriously by the Americans that a lowly political counsellor received it, thank you very much — in rather bombastic and convoluted (as is our wont) language. The Foreign Office’s statement:

“Dr Fai is a US citizen. A démarche was made to the US embassy in Islamabad today to register our concerns, in particular the slander campaign against Pakistan ... upholding [the] fundamental rights of Kashmiris is the fundamental responsibility of the international community and all conscientious people who value human rights and values ... campaigns to defame the just cause of the Kashmiri people will not affect its legitimacy.”

Several problems here. How is this a “slander campaign against Pakistan”? Were the payments made in a clandestine manner or were they not? If they were not, the FO should say so. How is Fai’s arrest for what surely is dubious funding too, a “campaign to defame the just cause…”? Did such funding not happen? If it did not, the FO should say so. This newest jewel will not affect the ‘legitimacy’ of the cause of Kashmir? Of course it will when the pointsman of the cause is arrested for violating the law of his own country.

Whilst one sympathises with the FO for perpetually having a pistol held to its head by the arbiters of foreign policy of the country one wishes that one, just one honourable FO babu will stand up one day and say to what Khalid Hasan called ‘The Boys’: ‘I will not do your stupid bidding because it will hurt our country.’

In the end, just this for The Boys to chew on while they plan their next brilliant move: just one-third of US supplies for Afghanistan now go through Pakistan, with the Americans working hard to develop other routes, as ‘relations with Pakistan continue to deteriorate’.

kshafi1@yahoo.co.uk