Who Does Hamid Mir work for?

In his latest column print "journalist" turned media celebrity writes:

* Many Pakistanis think that if Baitullah is dead just few days before the 62nd independence day of Pakistan then it is a great gift from a US drone but common Pakistanis are also raising some questions.

- Many Pakistanis - many? how many? Half of the 170 million? A quarter of? His theylaywala? Hamid Mir's Peon or chaprasi? Why cannot he be honest and raise the questions himself?

* Pakistani security establishment started saying last year that Baitullah was actually working for Americans and Indians and that was why US drones never attacked him.

- This is plausible. The question this raises is why Mr Mir and other talking heads did not hammer this point every time they mentioned or wrote about Mehsud? And I do mean EVERY TIME.

* ISI requested CIA many times in 2007 to target Baitullah Mehsud but CIA never obliged ISI.

- Here, he (Mir) fails to mention the occasion in 2007 that ISI and other agencies and officials actually pin pointed to the CIA and other US officials the exact locations and where about of Baitallah Mehsud.

* Well coordinated joint efforts to defeat Taliban and Al Qaeda were started just few months back. US announced 5 million dollars and Pakistan announced 50 million rupees as a head money for Baitullah. Some problems were still there.

- And what were they? Is Mr. MIr under oath or otherwise bound by official secrets act? Or he is merely conjecturing and posturing?

* Few weeks ago a rebel militant from South Wazirastan Qari Zainuddin Mehsud gave interviews to Pakistani media and claimed that Baitullah was working for Americans and Indians. This rebel militant was backed by the security establishment and his claim created lot of misunderstandings. Within few days of these interviews, Baitullah killed Qari Zinuddin on June 23, 2009, in Dera Ismail Khan and gave a message that he can target his enemies anytime and anywhere in Pakistan.

- While acknowledging that the late Qari was an ISI asset Hamid Mir fails to connect the dots. Why did his paymasters not avail of that claim by the Qari?

* US drones cannot target anyone in Pakistani territory until someone from Pakistan is not ready to share intelligence with CIA.

- Misleading. He knows that in addition to ISI and other Pakistani sources the CIA has built up its own humintel network inside Pakistan.

* It is now proved that despite some trust deficit in the past, currently US and Pakistani intelligence agencies are working closely with each other.

- Conjectural at best. Where is the beef Mr. Mir?

* Pakistani security forces encircled Baitullah Mehsud from three sides in South Wazirastan and someone provided information of his movement to CIA and that was how the head of Pakistani Taliban was targeted by a US drone.

- Where is the proof? Is he in the pay of agencies? This is a serious allegation that he makes. On what basis?

* There is no doubt now. US drones are attacking targets in Pakistan with the secret cooperation from some Pakistanis but our government always condemned these drone attacks.

_ Did his sources not levelled with him the open understanding that CIA can operate those drones, flown from inside Pakistan on Pakistani targets and the Pakistani leaders are free to "protest"?

* Pakistan today needs a transparent and bold policy for fighting terrorism. If we are coordinating US drone attacks in our own country then our government should not condemn drone attacks in Pakistan publicly. It is only creating misunderstandings. Common Pakistanis cannot be fooled.

_ Look at the beauty of these words - transparent - coordinating - misunderstanding and once again Common Pakistani.

* We must learn lessons from our past mistakes. We must admit that Baitullah Mehsud was actually created by our own establishment. We used Brig (R) Qayyum Sher in January 2005 to win the support of Baitullah Mehsud against Abdullah Mehsud. Lt Gen Safdar Hussain approved the first peace agreement with Baitullah Mehsud in February 2005 and Pakistan Army agreed to withdraw its troops from the areas under Baitullah control. After the withdrawal of the Army from his areas, Baitullah broke the peace agreement in July 2005. He kidnapped 243 Pakistani soldiers from his area in August 2007 and Musharraf was forced to release these soldiers again through another secret deal with Baitullah on Nov 4, 2007. Pakistani establishment again struck a deal with him in January 2008 but it was broken in a few weeks. All these deals were secret. We don't need secret deals with militants anymore. If we need peace deals then discuss these deals first in the parliament.

- Secret? How does Mir know about them? Again, this begs the query. Is Mir employed by the agencies?

* And the most important lesson. We should not form any private militias against other private militias to fight in our own country. Read Article 256 of the Constitution of Pakistan which says "no private organisation capable of functioning as a military organization shall be formed, and any such organisation shall be illegal." Unfortunately we are again forming private militias in Swat, Buner and Dir. These militias may produce some more Baitullah Mehsuds.

- And who has been outspoken and vocal in support for these militias in the electronic and print media during the initial days of Army's action?

*I think that the real victory will be establishing the writ of Pakistani state in the whole of South Wazirastan. Unfortunately we don't have control in that area. We are not sure that Baitullah is dead or alive. For me he is still alive. I will consider him dead when the national flag of Pakistan will be hoisted on the buildings of all the schools in South Wazirastan and students will celebrate Aug 14 without any fear.

_ I fully agree with Hamid Mir here but August 14 is only five days away. Years of misrule by Islamabad cannot be undone in a few days time? And why in South Waziristan only?

The writ of Pakistan should be established over every single village and district of Pakistan from the North to the South? Accountability and Law & Order should be established and provided to every "common" Pakistani. That is a start. Corrupt politicians (and even Mr. Mir's common Pakistani would know who they are) should be hauled before the courts. These corrupt politicians, who do not work in the interest of the "common" Pakistani are the Baitallah Mahsuds of the political system that is undoing the country.