My Travels: Islamabad, Pakistan

Overview:

The Muslim-majority state of Pakistan was born out of the partition of the Indian sub-continent in 1947 and has faced both domestic political upheavals and regional confrontations. Created to meet the demands of Indian Muslims for their own homeland, Pakistan was originally made up of two parts. The break-up of the two wings came in 1971 when the Bengali-speaking east wing seceded with help from India to become the independent state of Bangladesh. Development in Pakistan has been hampered by Islamist violence and economic stagnation, and relations with its key neighbors India and Afghanistan are often fraught.

Arif Alvi is a long-standing member of the Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party and has served two terms as a member of parliament. He was elected by parliament in September 2018 to succeed Mamnoon Hussain, whose five-year term had come to an end. Pakistan is a parliamentary republic where the prime minister wields most power, but presidents have often played key roles in constitutional crises.

The 70-year-old leader of the opposition Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz, Shehbaz Sharif ousted former cricket star Imran Khan as prime minister in April 2022 in a parliamentary vote over Mr Khan's handling of the economy. Mr Sharif is the younger brother of Nawaz Sharif, who served as prime minister on three occasions. But unlike Nawaz, the new prime minister has cultivated good relations with the powerful military. He served as chief minister of Punjab, Pakistan's most populous province, prior to Imran Khan coming to power in 2018, and won a reputation for efficiency. Imran Khan rode to victory on a pledge to end corruption and the role of political dynasties like the Sharifs, but critics

Source: BBC Country Profile

OIG Team:

Ambassador Douglas Hartwick, Team Leader; Michael Greenwald, Deputy Team Leader; Me, Management; Pat Capriglione, (Security); Calvin Carlsen, (Political), Darren Felsburg, (Security); Martha Fikru, IT; Hanane Grini, (Management); Mark Jacobs, (Public Affairs); Lisa Piascik, (Political/Economic); Erica Renew, (Management); Ashea Riley, (Foreign Assistance); James Steele, (Political/Economic); and Jack Zetkulic, (Political). I had worked with Doug Hartwick before on the Nassau and Caracas inspections.

Before heading out to Pakistan each member of the team had to take the one-week Foreign Affairs Counter Terror Threat Training (FACT) course because we were going to a high-threat country for over 30 days. The course was held at the DS training facility in Winchester, VA and took five days. It used to be called the "crash and bang" because of the defensive driving course that included crashing a vehicle. But other subjects were included being exposed to gunfire, firing and explosives. Reacting to fire and smoke in a building like Benghazi and emergency medical treatment under fire. I would have given myself a D if the course was graded. I failed on crashing the car as I hit the brakes and couldn't get the hang of driving around the serpentine course. I also didn't do well in the medical emergency but did apply a bandage to stop bleeding.

American Embassy Islamabad:

OIG inspected U.S. Embassy Islamabad from May 8 to June 28, 2016 but I cut my visit short to June 17 because of my limited REA hours available. The inspection included Consulates General Karachi, Lahore, and Peshawar. I was in Karachi May 30 to June 1 and was confined to the Consulate compound.

The Ambassador was David Hale, a Near East/South Asia expert. We had only received about a third of the embassy U.S. Direct-Hire responses to the Personal Questionnaires (PQs) that we asked all staff to complete prior to the inspection. So, Doug made an appeal to Ambassador Hale to encourage staff to complete the PQs. The OIG relied heavily on the responses to PQs not only to get an assessment of senior management of the embassy but also if there were any issues with fraud or internal controls. I had met the DCM, Jonathan Pratt, when doing the inspection of embassy Brazzaville. He was a former Peace Corps Volunteer and is now the Ambassador in Djibouti. The Management Counselor was Virginia “Ginger” Keener and her deputy was David Chinn, both very competent and helpful. The Senior FMO was Jeffrey Scearce who was very experienced and ran a good shop. Jeff is now in Beijing.

The Bureau of Overseas Buildings Operations (OBO) was in the middle of a major $700 million construction project to build a new chancery building, staff apartments, chief of mission residence, and key support buildings on the Embassy Islamabad compound. In 2015, embassy employees occupied the new chancery and office annex buildings on the compound. For security reasons most all embassy U.S. direct-hire staff were relocated from residences in Islamabad to the staff housing on the compound which was completed in 2017. OBO also completed construction of a new consulate compound in Karachi in 2011.

Findings:

OIG made 15 recommendations to improve Embassy Islamabad’s operations and procedures. This was the only inspection where I didn’t have any recommendations for the embassy financial management operations. I did try to recommend that the embassy establish controls on approving overtime claims by FSOs and enforce regulations requiring approval in advance. However, I was overruled and the embassy agreed to issue such an Administrative Instruction.

Embassy support for the Consulates was uneven or non-existent we recommended the embassy develop a plans to provide the three constituent posts with regional management support services on a regularly scheduled basis.

In the area of General Services Operations (GSO) the embassy needed to consolidate its motor vehicle records into the Fleet Management Integrated System and implement a plan to provide armored vehicle training to all mission chauffeurs.

GSO did not define the extent or nature of its support to Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs, (INL) program in the areas of procurement, supply, property management, and motor pool. We recommended they establish an agreement on the level of support GSO should provide.

Favorite Memories:

The embassy was located on the Diplomatic Enclave so we were free to move freely around the area to go shopping, eat out at a few restaurants or take walks..
We took most of our meals on the compound to eat in or carry-out. We did eat out for dinner a couple of times in Islamabad and mixed it in with shopping for carpets.