Clueless at Chicago
By: S M Hali | May 23, 2012
Following the Salala attack, Pakistan’s leadership expressed its anger by taking some major steps: the Nato supply route plying through Pakistan was blocked; the Shamsi Airbase in Balochistan was vacated; the Bonn Conference was boycotted; and a formal apology was sought from the USA for the tragic incident. The mandarins at the Foreign Office were asked to delegate formulation of foreign policy to Parliament, after which the politicians began behaving like demagogues and US bashing became the flavour of the day. Pubic fury was whipped to a frenzy that reached a crescendo. However, six months down the line the world has moved on sans Pakistan, likening our protestations to Shakespeare’s “full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.”
But the straw that broke the proverbial camel’s back was the Nato Summit at Chicago. The Bonn Conference had been deliberately skipped by Pakistan, but come May 2012 and the panic started gripping in, since Islamabad had not received the invitation for the Chicago Summit. The same leaders, who had breathed fire and brimstone after the Salala incident instigating national pride and sovereignty, started singing a different tune. One is reminiscent of George Orwell’s political satire titled Animal Farm, where the sheep (signifying the general public), after the takeover of the farm by the animals, are initially taught the slogan: “Four legs good! Two legs bad!” But after the compromise and sell out to the humans, they are taught a new slogan: “Four legs good! Two legs better!”
