The appointment of Sherry Rehman as Pakistan’s newest ambassador to the US is at once a chance for both Islamabad and Washington to reset their stormy relationship, but also for India to reach out to the civilian government in Pakistan and reaffirm its faith in democratic institutional transitions.
Now hard-boiled diplomats are bound to scoff at such naivety, beginning their argument with the fact that countries do not interfere in the internal affairs of another, especially on the matter of a bureaucratic appointment. And since this is Pakistan we’re speaking about, it would still be too early to say whether the transition from Hussain Haqqani to Rehman is democratic or martial. No, not really, not yet, these diplomats will say, in several languages.
In an intimately interconnected world, however, I would argue, what my neighbour – Pakistan – does with my close friend – the US – is certainly my business. In fact, Rehman is someone South Asia can flaunt as a card-carrying citizen of the sub-continent: she’s smart, she’s gutsy and she’s not afraid to stand up for what she believes in.
Rehman resigned as Pakistan’s minister for information & broadcasting in March 2009 because she refused to subscribe to Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari’s demands that she rein in Geo TV, the powerful and privately-held TV channel that was criticising the government for its handling of the judiciary. Zardari and she have been friends for some time, especially since both are from Karachi and Rehman was among Benazir Bhutto’s closest friends, but she wasn’t afraid to speak her mind.
Then there was the time last year when Rehman proposed to amend Pakistan’s hateful blasphemy laws, which awarded the death penalty to anyone seen to be blaspheming the Prophet. When Salman Taseer, the former governor of Pakistan Punjab, defended a Christian woman accused of blasphemy, he was gunned down by his own bodyguard. A few months later, Pakistan’s minorities minister Shahbaz Bhatti met the same fate.
But Sherry refused to keep quiet, disdaining what she said would amount to a living death, or leave the country. She continued to campaign against honour killings and fought for Mukhtaran Mai’s right to dignity. Her think-tank, the Jinnah Institute, was instrumental in promoting the peace process between India and Pakistan.
Zardari’s naming of Rehman is, in fact, a real coup, because in her public and private pronouncements, Rehman has always reiterated the primacy of the civilian, democratically-elected government. In a country like Pakistan, where the fine line is fudged at the best of times, all those climbing the ladder must make it their life’s work to walk the balance between the military and an elected government.
It’s often charming to talk about how most countries have an army and that in Pakistan’s case the army has a country. Nothing underlines this fact more than Pakistan’s outgoing US ambassador Haqqani’s resignation over a secret memo criticising the Pakistan army, which Haqqani denies was ever allegedly written in the first place.
Fact is that Rehman is no pushover. She has often argued for making public the so-called secret understandings between Delhi and Islamabad, for example in the time of General Pervez Musharraf, on Kashmir. The back-channel, she pointed out, had its time and place, but there was nothing better than the warm light of day to check out where each of us stood on this and several other issues.
By making Rehman his newest ambassador to the US, it’s clear that the shrewd Zardari is playing an ace from a hand that has very few cards left. Everyone in Pakistan, including the army, knows that Rehman’s liberal credentials are both superb and impressive and that she will press Islamabad’s case in Washington better than many people.
This is the second time in as many months that, in fact, Zardari is displaying uncanny toughness. The first time has been over the decision to accord Most Favoured Nation (MFN) status to India and take Pakistan on a gruelling ride towards MFN and less-than-MFN tariffs across the South Asian free trade space. Sure, the Pakistan army is on board, but even the army doesn’t fully know what the country is in for.
Now by putting Rehman on the frontline, Zardari knows she’s going to lap up the headlines in Washington DC sooner than you can bring the cat in for its evening dinner. By enhancing the liberal spaces for the Pakistan-US relationship, Zardari is also making greater elbow room for himself for dealing with Delhi.
As the stage is slowly reset, here’s a new troika for DC: Nirupama Menon Rao, India’s ambassador to the US and Hilary Rodham Clinton, US Secretary of State, and now Rehman.
It’s time to set the Potomac on fire.
