Pakistan Army to 're-conquer' Washington embassy

With retired general Jahangir Karamat set to take over as the next Pakistani ambassador in Washington, the Pakistan Army is ready to "re-conquer" the embassy, says a former diplomat.

With retired general Jahangir Karamat set to take over as the next Pakistani ambassador in Washington, the Pakistan Army is ready to "re-conquer" the embassy, says a former diplomat.

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Unlike European governments, which have refused to nominate "fauji (soldier) ambassadors", the US has followed a consistent policy of massive induction of non-senior foreign service ambassadors, Muhammad-Najm Akbar, who sought premature retirement as a senior Pakistani diplomat, writes in the US-based website South Asia Tribune.

As the request for a fauji's agre'ment comes from a Major Non-NATO Ally, a status recently granted by Washington to Islamabad, there is every likelihood of another victory for the army on the external front, the article says.

The appointment of Karamat, a former army chief, would make a dent on the European Union's resistance to the reinforcement of army rule in Pakistan, it notes.

"As the EU members refused to grant agre'ments to fauji ambassadors, they had to be redirected to destinations of least fauji preference like Middle East, Latin America and Southeast Asia. One of them even condescended to replace me in Beirut.

"The EU is not in a position to seek US support for its ban on the fauji ambassadors but if Washington decides to join its transatlantic partners, it would be a generous tribute to the EU symbolism of non-violent support to democratic forces in Pakistan.

"My ex-colleagues in the Foreign Service are not the only beneficiaries of the EU blockade. This decision has several merits for any country or foreign service under siege," the article says.

Foreign missions can play a significant role in sending policy inputs back home. It is, therefore, natural for army regimes to distrust the foreign service, the present establishment being very much part of the continuum, it says.

The appointment of military officers as ambassadors foreclosed all possibilities of sending objective analyses to a regime, which is least interested in whatever little pro-democracy elements abroad want to transmit, it says.

But according to Akbar: "There is also a bigger disadvantage of fauji postings: institutionalising inefficiency in Pakistan's official presence abroad.

"By the time the fauji ambassadors are inducted - and the faujis incorporated at lower levels in the foreign service will readily testify to it - they have totally exhausted their capacity to learn and hence are absolutely unsuitable for a job that requires constant education and
perpetual adaptability, traits that Foreign Service Academy seeks to inculcate into the third secretaries right from the inception of their careers.

"Most inductees at the top, unfortunately, begin as third secretaries as they have no idea of what they are required to do. Karamat will be no exception. He will be a third secretary sitting in a wrong office," he said.

According to Akbar, the Pakistan Army is deeply entrenched in the internal administrative structure with 10 percent of jobs reserved for army induction over and above "all other channels of infiltration" into power centres.

The inductees from the army were sent to only a few services - police, district management group and foreign service. Other services were considered unworthy of them.

And many army inductees had either closely worked with or were personally related to the military top brass. The article says former military dictator Gen. Zia-ul-Haque wanted the nation's powerbrokers to be in no doubt about who was in command.

"A specimen of this draconian phenomenon can be seen in the most recent list of fauji inductees submitted by the government to the National Assembly on Aug 20. The government list shows how Gen. Musharraf has monopolised and personalised the entire productive apparatus of the country."

The offices held by the army, according to this list, include the top executive posts of some 35 public sector undertakings, ministries, projects and programmes.

"Postings of fauji ambassadors, like in Washington, is yet another method of spreading the oppressive tentacles of Army Raj through Pakistan's body politic and render a nation of 150 million people totally vulnerable to the machinations of generals and their minions,

"For the time being, however, there is no hope of Washington lending a helping hand to the EU in its limited effort to reverse this tide," the article says.