WASHINGTON: With almost one-fifth of the country reeling from floods, Pakistan has said its homegrown terrorists have overtaken the Indian Army as the greatest threat to its national security, even as Islamabad battles overcome the worlds trust deficit to win desperately needed aid.
The sudden turnaround in downgrading the Indian ''threat,'' reportedly contained in a recent internal assessment of security by the countrys spy agency Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), comes only weeks after the countrys military supremo Pervez Ashfaq Kayani rebuffed Washingtons efforts to highlight the threat of home-grown terrorism while insisting India remained the principal enemy.
The ''recent'' undated assessment, leaked by a senior ISIofficial to the Wall Street Journal, allocates a ''two-thirds likelihood of a major threat to the state coming from militants rather than from India or elsewhere.'' Evidently, it is the first time since Independence that India isnt being viewed as the top threat.
The purported rethink, received leerily in Washington and New Delhi, comes amid catastrophic floods that has devastated Pakistan and generated talk about the countrys very survival. Some reports say nearly a quarter of the country an area the size of Great Britain is affected by floods, and there is fearful speculation that extremists will have a run of the place because of government apathy and inefficiency.
Pakistans civilian rulers have tried to highlight this aspect to drum up more aid from world community, but till last weekend its appeal was met with skepticism given Islamabads own dodgy use of militant groups to further its strategic depth, a concept which Kayani defended till recently. But that depth now appears to have been washed away; on Tuesday, Pakistan faced the mortifying spectacle of Afghanistan giving it $ 1 million in flood aid, even as it sat on India offer of $ 5 million in aid with more to follow.
The neighbourly concern from countries that Pakistan has tried to undermine for long is in sharp contrast to the indifference, based on suspicion about Islamabads bona fides, from most of the world community. As of last weekend, the Indian aid offer topped France ($ 1.5 million), Germany ( $ 2.4 million), Italy ( $ 1.8 million) , Netherlands ( $ 1.3 million). Sweden ($ 3 million), and a host of other wealthy countries.
International experts attribute the cautious and tentative response by the world community to the trust deficit as also donor fatigue -- arising from the Pakistani establishments deep and long ties to terrorism. "We note often an image deficit with regards to Pakistan among Western public opinion," Elizabeth Byrs, spokeswoman of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, bluntly stated over the weekend, even as she and other experts questioned the logic of punishing millions of flood victims for the policies of the country's militarized establishment.
Pakistan's image deficit became evident in the poor response to Secretary of State Hillary Clintons appeal for $ 10 individual donation through text messages for flood relief an effort that brought in only thousands of dollars in the first few hours compared to the millions which rolled in for the Haiti earthquake and tsunami relief funds.
Similarly, a German lawmaker who is trying to raise money for Pakistan complained to Der Spielgel that he had so far been met with two types of reactions: "Some fear their money will help extremists. Others say: If Pakistan would spend less money on its efforts to arm itself with nuclear weapons then it would have enough money to manage the catastrophe."
Pakistan appears to have gotten the message or at least is pretending that it did going by the disclosure of its new threat assessment that runs contrary to what its Armychief insisted only weeks ago that India remained a bigger threat than home-grown terrorists.
Read more: ISI's sudden turnaround: Says terror bigger threat than India - Pakistan - World - The Times of India http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/...n-India/articleshow/6326267.cms#ixzz0wucpNeH7
The sudden turnaround in downgrading the Indian ''threat,'' reportedly contained in a recent internal assessment of security by the countrys spy agency Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), comes only weeks after the countrys military supremo Pervez Ashfaq Kayani rebuffed Washingtons efforts to highlight the threat of home-grown terrorism while insisting India remained the principal enemy.
The ''recent'' undated assessment, leaked by a senior ISIofficial to the Wall Street Journal, allocates a ''two-thirds likelihood of a major threat to the state coming from militants rather than from India or elsewhere.'' Evidently, it is the first time since Independence that India isnt being viewed as the top threat.
The purported rethink, received leerily in Washington and New Delhi, comes amid catastrophic floods that has devastated Pakistan and generated talk about the countrys very survival. Some reports say nearly a quarter of the country an area the size of Great Britain is affected by floods, and there is fearful speculation that extremists will have a run of the place because of government apathy and inefficiency.
Pakistans civilian rulers have tried to highlight this aspect to drum up more aid from world community, but till last weekend its appeal was met with skepticism given Islamabads own dodgy use of militant groups to further its strategic depth, a concept which Kayani defended till recently. But that depth now appears to have been washed away; on Tuesday, Pakistan faced the mortifying spectacle of Afghanistan giving it $ 1 million in flood aid, even as it sat on India offer of $ 5 million in aid with more to follow.
The neighbourly concern from countries that Pakistan has tried to undermine for long is in sharp contrast to the indifference, based on suspicion about Islamabads bona fides, from most of the world community. As of last weekend, the Indian aid offer topped France ($ 1.5 million), Germany ( $ 2.4 million), Italy ( $ 1.8 million) , Netherlands ( $ 1.3 million). Sweden ($ 3 million), and a host of other wealthy countries.
International experts attribute the cautious and tentative response by the world community to the trust deficit as also donor fatigue -- arising from the Pakistani establishments deep and long ties to terrorism. "We note often an image deficit with regards to Pakistan among Western public opinion," Elizabeth Byrs, spokeswoman of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, bluntly stated over the weekend, even as she and other experts questioned the logic of punishing millions of flood victims for the policies of the country's militarized establishment.
Pakistan's image deficit became evident in the poor response to Secretary of State Hillary Clintons appeal for $ 10 individual donation through text messages for flood relief an effort that brought in only thousands of dollars in the first few hours compared to the millions which rolled in for the Haiti earthquake and tsunami relief funds.
Similarly, a German lawmaker who is trying to raise money for Pakistan complained to Der Spielgel that he had so far been met with two types of reactions: "Some fear their money will help extremists. Others say: If Pakistan would spend less money on its efforts to arm itself with nuclear weapons then it would have enough money to manage the catastrophe."
Pakistan appears to have gotten the message or at least is pretending that it did going by the disclosure of its new threat assessment that runs contrary to what its Armychief insisted only weeks ago that India remained a bigger threat than home-grown terrorists.
Read more: ISI's sudden turnaround: Says terror bigger threat than India - Pakistan - World - The Times of India http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/...n-India/articleshow/6326267.cms#ixzz0wucpNeH7
