Pakistan army has mastered art of non-coup coup: Husain Haqqani

NEW DELHI: Pakistan’s former envoy to the United States, Husain Haqqani, on Monday, alleged that the Pakistan Army has mastered the art of “non-coup coup”, which essentially means to run things from behind the curtains.

"How to run affairs without actually taking over power directly and for that they use an assortment of Pakistani political characters and operators,” said Haqqani, who singled out evicted former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif as not being one of those “operators”.

Haqqani, who is currently a Director for South and Central Asia at the Hudson Institute, made these comments while speaking here at an event organised for the launch of his book 'Reimagining Pakistan: Transforming a Dysfunctional Nuclear State'.

At the event, which was also attended by Indian High Commissioner to Pakistan, Ajay Bisaria, the former diplomat also called upon the Indians not to yearn for Pakistan’s misery, as the instability in the neighbourhood would affect India too.

“Indians should be among Pakistan's best well-wishers," he said, also urging Pakistan to take a cue from Belgium, which is not obsessed with matching their military might with France.

Wondering how a nation could flourish if it continually suspected other countries of conspiring against it, he said his country has become a ‘threat-perceiver’ while adding that Pakistan needs to "absolutely shut down" terror infrastructure if aspirations of becoming a prosperous model nation were to materialise.

On being enquired about charges of treason against him back in his homeland, Haqqani belittled the same, saying he did not have any serious charges against him and so many people had been labelled as traitors that it has lost its essence.