A strange accusation, and malice in Faujiland

Aug 31, 2024 09:07 PM IST

Youtubers in Pakistan, papers like The Express Tribune, the country’s ministry of information and broadcasting and, even, the minister himself have declared I’m anti-Pakistani, close to the Narendra Modi government and hand-in-glove with the Research and Analysis Wing (R&AW). Now, this will certainly come as a surprise to my critics, who have for decades accused me of being partial to Pakistan. But across the border, the men in uniform, their civilian government and their snoops seem to have swallowed it hook, line and sinker.

Let me try to explain how this has happened. A few weeks ago, the Pakistani authorities arrested Raoof Hasan, information secretary and spokesperson of Imran Khan’s Tehreek-e-Insaaf. Determined to accuse him of treason and lock him up, they accessed his phone, emails and WhatsApp messages. There they found a few messages he had — as far back as November 2022 — exchanged with me. Ah ha, they said, he’s talking to people in India. That makes him anti-national. Worse still, he’s commenting on the way Imran has been treated, discussing Pakistan’s politics and, even, the army chief! This is definitely anti-Pakistani.

Now, to clinch their case, I had to be presented as a Pakistan-basher. It wouldn’t serve their purpose to acknowledge that I’ve known and interviewed many of their dictators and prime ministers, frequently visited the country and have a long list of close friends in Islamabad, Lahore and Karachi.

It would certainly be counter-productive to accept Benazir Bhutto was a dear friend, Nawaz Sharif asked to meet me when he last visited in 2014, and Shehbaz Sharif and I sat and chatted amicably — if vacuously — at the Pakistan High Commissioner’s, when he was chief minister of Punjab. No, that would have demolished the case they want to build against Raoof.

So, in an official statement, the Pakistan ministry of information and broadcasting claimed: “The careless messages of Raoof Hasan to Indian journalist Karan Thapar are very alarming. Defence analysts say this messaging was actually a precious asset of information for R&AW officers, backing Karan Thapar. They said through these messages, the PTI spokesperson conveyed the country’s sensitive information to an Indian for fanning anti-Pakistan propaganda.” Attaullah Tarar, Pakistan’s I&B minister, told The Express Tribune: “Hasan’s communication with an Indian journalist, known for anti-Pakistan sentiments, has further revealed PTI’s disloyalty to the country.”

Consequently, Raoof’s brief, infrequent and utterly harmless exchanges with me — and the fact I’ve interviewed him — were transmogrified into a threat to the sovereignty, integrity and the very future of Pakistan. No doubt this will be used to persecute him. Of course, they’ll call it justice.

The truth is beyond our perfunctory exchange over WhatsApp, the odd interview and maybe a couple of conversations to arrange it, I don’t know Raoof. And he doesn’t know me. We’re strangers to each other. So, it has always been.

Actually, if they’d accused his boss, Imran Khan, of confabulating with me, they could have built a better case. I’ve interviewed him several times. Not just in Bani Gala or Delhi. On one occasion, I even travelled to London and did it in the gardens of his former in-laws’ mansion in Richmond! Wouldn’t that look incriminating on a Pakistani charge-sheet? Worse, Imran even claimed the army chief would be subordinate to him if he ever becomes prime minister. And he wasn’t smiling when he said it.

As a dear friend in Pakistan said to calm my ruffled feathers: “You’re familiar with Alice in Wonderland. Now, welcome to Malice in Faujiland!”

Karan Thapar is the author of Devil’s Advocate: The Untold Story.The views expressed are personal