The Pakistan Memogate that has engulfed Pakistan is symptomatic of the major ailment that afflicts Pakistan and that is the propensity of the Pakistan Army to dictate Pakistan’s governance and foreign policy even when a duly elected civilian Government is in place.

Many in the United States and more so in India lionized General Kayani when he took over as Pakistan Army Chief and eulogized General Kayani as someone who would facilitate Pakistan evolving into a functioning democracy. In three years General Kayani has displayed that a tiger does not change his stripes come whatever.

The Pakistan Memogate is in essence an attempt by the Pakistan Army Chief and his over-loyal Director General, Lieutenant General Shuja Pasha to pointedly target Pro-US personalities in Pakistan’s civilian establishment, namely the Pakistan Ambassador to the United States, Hussein Haqqani and the Pakistan President Asif Zardari. It is strange and intriguing that the Pakistani establishment should place over-reliance on the evidence of a dubious American of Pakistani ancestry Mansoor Ijaz who implicated Ambassador Haqqani of having used the services of Ijaz to forward a secret Memo to Admiral Mullen at the Pentagon on behalf of President Zardari seeking United States assistance in preventing the Pakistani Army Chief from a military coup against the civilian Government.

The Pakistan Army has succeeded in getting the scalp of Ambassador Haqqani and it remains to be seen as to what Byzantine intrigues the Pakistan Army indulges in to ease out President Zaardari from office if not contriving  the he regime change of the ruling PPP Government and install a Government of its choice by bringing in Imran Khan, the former Cricket Captain of Pakistan heading a miniscule political party.

It needs to be recalled that in the eyes of the Pakistan Army Chief and his intelligence chief, President Zaedari and Ambassador Haqqani are guilty of a much more heinous crime than being overtly Pro-US in their political inclinations and policy utterances.  Both President Zardari and Ambassador Haqqani are perceived by the Pakistan Army as working towards diluting or eradicating the military supremacy in Pakistan over the civilian government and redressing the imbalance in Civil-Military relations in Pakistan. In Pakistan Army perceptions questioning the Pakistan Army’s supremacy over the civilian establishment is considered as more blasphemous than religious blasphemy.

At the heart of the Pakistan Memogate is the alleged contents of the Memo which sought US assistance to deter the Pakistan Army Chief from displacing the civilian elected regime by a military coup. As quid-pro-quo it is alleged that the Memo carried assurances from President Zardari on his behalf that the civilian government would restructure the entire national security structure in Pakistan implying that GeneralKayani and Lt Gen Shuja Pasha would be replaced by people more amenable to pursue US interests especially in relation to Afghanistan.

But the actual fact is that the contents of the said Memo do not stand proved nor their authorship proven. It is a single man’s word and who may have either set a trap for Ambassador Haqqani with his reputation for being a double agent for both the ISI and the American CIA or not paid his promised millions by the civilian government for drlivering the Memo to Admiral Mullen.

Whatever be the actual facts and realities what stands out loud and clear is that in this Pakistan Memogate the intended targets were both personalities viewed as highly Pro-American by the military establishment

Is the United States policy establishment listening?