Daily Times

Keep killing the flies, and they will multiply till you cover the hole from which they enter. If you substitute flies for spies that is what we are facing as far as national security issues are concerned. That leaks are the latest trend is understood; that leaks will make some famous and some infamous is a bygone conclusion; and that leaks will create controversy is undeniable. But any wound that keeps on leaking and is not tended to and not healed infects the whole system, eventually. Leaks on public figures may be limited to their personal and public lives, but leaks related to national security are a matter that needs serious attention. That is why it is perturbing that the recent spate of leaks known as the Dawn leaks, and the latest ‘media leaks’ about the identity of eight Indian officers and staffers believed to be undercover agents and posted in the country’s High Commission is an extraordinary matter, and should receive extraordinary treatment.

The Dawn leaks are still leaking. That is happening because the enquiry that was supposed to be conducted and culprits punished has languished in the process of typical mumbo jumbo of the prime minister and his interior minister. One fly has been ‘killed’. Pervez Rasheed has been removed from his office for not stopping the leakage, but who cut the hole, who facilitated the passage of the information and most important, with what intent is yet to be discovered. And time passes by and new leaks make way for old leaks. Dawn leaks are infesting the wound as many areas remain untreated. The government and the army both deny that the report is correct. Chaudhry Nisar categorically stated that the story leaked out revealing government’s spat with the ISI for hindering operations against terrorists is exaggerated and twisted to give the wrong impression. The newspaper sticks to its version. The reporter reports as usual. The minister holds press conferences. The prime minister holds cabinet meetings. The foreign office gives rejoinders. And yet we are as unaware of what and how it happened as we were when the story first leaked.

The fact that there has always been national security breaches in the past like Dr Shakil Afridi’s leak related to the Abbottabad incident does not justify the present spate of leaks. The problem remains of accurate investigations; the problem remains of facts; and the problem remains of real accountability. Investigations need to be thorough and time-bound. Facts, no matter how pinching, should be brought to light. Accountability regardless of position and power should be done across the board. Everybody agrees on these principles but few practise them. Commissions have been formed of expert individuals, and reports have been made on thorough investigations but little has come out of them.

The ‘Memogate’, the Abbottabad Commission and many other earlier ones are an example of wasted time, spent resources and inactionable actions. The reason being that these reports point at leakage and lapses at the highest level. And the highest level has the highest unwritten immunity against highest prosecution in this country. Consider the Dawn leaks. The newspaper claims that the report was leaked through reliable sources. Cyril Almeida must have given his version to the army and the government. Pervez Rasheed was definitely not the instrument drilling the hole; it has to be somebody higher than him who not only provided the information first hand but also persuaded him to leave his ministry. But then that is also a routine practice.

Last year in August, Mushahid Ullah Khan, the then minister of climate change, in an interview with the BBC Urdu, alleged that during Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s meeting with COAS General Raheel Sharif on July 28, 2014, an audio tape was played in which Lt General Zaheer-ul-Islam could be heard giving orders to ransack the Prime Minister House and spread chaos. The tape, claimed the federal minister, was obtained by officials of the civilian intelligence agency, the Intelligence Bureau. According to Khan, on hearing the audiotape, General Sharif summoned the ISI chief to the meeting, and played the tape to him. When Zaheer-ul-Islam confirmed that it was his voice, the army chief asked him to leave. After the BBC interview, the prime minister and his ministers denied the story, Mushahid Ullah Khan was asked to resign, and that was the end of the story.

Thus the latest leak on the eight undercover agents is not the first one. The Kulbhushan Yadav scandal emerged earlier this year, and his confessions of being an Indian agent were backed by many proofs. There is absolutely no doubt about Indian involvement in Balochistan and RAW’s involvement in Karachi. In a report in 2013, the former RAW chief General Vijay Kumar Singh admitted that India orchestrated bomb blasts in Pakistan and financed the separatist movement in Balochistan. The welcome given by India to Brahumdagh Bugti for applying for political asylum recently and to Altaf Hussain earlier are not coincidental factors. However, matters are not simple.

While all over the world and especially in India, Narendra Modi, RAW and Indian military are speaking the same language, in Pakistan the army and Nawaz Sharif are not saying much to each other. The prime minister by not speaking on Yadav has made the case of leaks more controversial. Nothing can be more telling than Aitezaz Ahsan challenging the prime minister that if he takes Yadav’s name even once, Ahsan will give a certain amount to a charity. Similarly, the media leaks on the eight undercover Indian agents being caught had a late and almost an afterthought confirmation from the foreign office.

Certainly, security matters cannot be openly debated; certainly, spy vs. spy games are the norm in conflict zones; certainly, propaganda techniques leave a lot unravelled; and certainly, silence, many times, is golden. But that is not true in matters that enlarge the hole, and let many internal issues become open to international predators. That is dangerous, and needs immediate and urgent control and emergency solutions. Thus for the government to play its typical game of delay, dodge and dilute the matter till it fades from the memory only makes the hole bigger. The hole will disappear only when the leak-makers are held accountable. As long as only the leak-takers are taken to task, and the masterminds hide behind position and power-immunity, national security will always remain insecure.

The writer is a columnist and analyst and can be reached at andleeb.abbas1@gmail.com