`WikiLeaks exposed pettiness of Pakistani leaders’

ISLAMABAD - The WikiLeaks’ revelation has exposed the “pettiness of a number of national leaders” of Pakistan, said a leading Pakistani daily that added “there is a whole set of lessons to be learnt” from the US cables.

An editorial in the Dawn Friday said: “The world has perhaps never before been provided with such a large volume of evidence about the wheels within wheels and the shady deals and negotiations that lurk in the shadows of inter-state diplomacy.”

“One of the most important lessons to be learnt from the WikiLeaks disclosures is that states and governments should not assume that their secrets will forever remain under their control.

“The discomfiture of various political players after the WikiLeaks exposures should make it amply clear that in one way or the other, the truth will come out. And with advances in technology, this is likely to happen sooner rather than later.”

It said that “for Pakistan, where the WikiLeaks cables have caused widespread consternation amongst political and military circles, there is a whole set of lessons to be learnt”.

“The pettiness of a number of national leaders has been exposed by the sort of things they are quoted in the leaked cables as having said about each other.”

The editorial lamented: “More depressing, perhaps, is how most of Pakistans civilian and military leaders appear to consider the US envoy as some sort of viceroy who should be appealed to for domestic concerns. Other disclosures have cast the countrys claimed counter-terrorism and military strategy in a new light.”

Citing a set of cables that show as false Pakistan and US officials long-repeated denial about the US military presence in the country, “it turns out that the US Special Operations Forces have been conducting joint operations with Pakistans forces”.

“It is now evident that Pakistans leaders quietly approved of drone attacks inside Fata, giving a lie to earlier claims that no such permission had been given.”