US walk away from Pakistan

United States is once again in its true colours as it is poised to stab Pakistan on its back. Living up to its well-established tradition of leaving Pakistan in the lurch, Washington is on its way to effectively block 75% of the aid meant for Islamabad only after about one year of its continuation.
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So here it goes; and not any unexpectedly or any surprisingly. The US House Appropriations Committee has approved $1.1 billion in military aid for Pakistan for coming fiscal year, but with a shaming rider to withhold 75 percent of it until the administration tells the Congress how would it spend the money and giving the US legislature additional powers as well to review the American assistance to this country. But what else could you expect when self-conceited panjandrums jam-packing the US Congress hold up as their act of tremendous magnanimity what is patently a stinking deceit and you have the rulers who would unquestioningly lap it up as a great deed of munificence with overflowing gratitude? Just recall the boisterous jubilation that overwhelmed Islamabad’s ruling clan when the Kerry-Lugar aid law was enacted. So enthused was it that the president instantly hailed it as the best thing that could ever happen to Pakistan and rang up every Tom, Dick and Harry in Washington he could think of, offering them bagfuls of thanks on people’s behalf; so did the prime minister. But their people were utterly aghast and livid. No conditions could be as humiliating as were attached to this American aid, screamed out the people in unison from one end of the country to the other. Not even a banana republic would accept a dole with such strings slapped, they raged. The military establishment too went by this public outcry. It too called it an insult. Latterly, both the president and the prime minister changed too, publicly but only deceitfully. Quietly, they all accepted the aid, with all the degrading conditions attached to it, shamelessly and disgracefully. The military establishment too was very much part of this “grateful” brigade. When a ruling elites show themselves up so lowly and base, who on earth would care about their nation’s honour and dignity and about their people’s sensitivities? No wonder, while the American lords have taken to taking this country’s movers and shakers for a ride, they in turn have taken to deceiving and befooling their own people.For months no end, the American officials, lawmakers and their kowtowing media and intelligentsias were taunting scornfully that over the past ten years they had pumped in some $20 billion in military aid to Pakistan, which it had gobbled up neatly without coughing the expected results.

• One the one side there is growing criticism of Pakistan but on the other hand, the Obama administration and US officials like Robert Gates and Admiral Mike Mullen have termed it dangerous and unrealistic to walk away from Pakistan. "We need each other, and this relationship goes beyond Afghanistan" Mr Gates said. "It has to do with regional stability, and I think we have to be realistic about Pakistani distrust.... and their deep belief that when we are done with al Qaeda that we will be gone, again".

All in Islamabad took this torrent of tirade silently. No voice was raised against it from any quarter. None indeed ventured talking back to the American lords, telling them bluntly that over the period because of them and their spurious war on terror this country had suffered a colossal economic loss of over $68 billion, apart from the irreparable grievous loss of tens of thousands of precious lives of our soldiers and civilians and life-long incapacitating injuries to countless more, and that hundreds of their containers and lorries carry daily supplies for their and their war allies’ forces in Afghanistan through our ports and roads without paying even a dime in customs duties and toll tax.It is only now when pushed into a tight corner for the American adventurism in this country that the army has spoken up. Over the past ten years, it says, barely $8 billion out of the US pledged $13 billion in military aid had actually poured into the country, though the army got some $1.4 billion out of it with the rest going in for government’s budgetary support. But the political administration is still to unseal its sealed lips on the economic aid under Kerry-Lugar enactment, which was touted up, although hyperbolically and irrationally, both by the Washington and Islamabad hierarchs as a formidable face changer of this country. That enactment envisaged $1.5 billion flowing in annually in economic aid to Pakistan. And the first year of that miraculous aid flow ended on September 30, 2010 with barely $179.5 million coming in, according to America’s own Government Accountability Office.But when will this country’s ruling echelons learn and stop deceiving their own people to serve their American masters’ interests and consequently their own? When would they speak out truthfully that this whole charade of US aid is a big hoax and abominable joke with this nation? Haven’t this nation survived the intermittent train of US sanctions and embargoes of all sorts, and rather beneficially? Hadn’t their perpetual betrayals of Pakistan and nuclear-related sanctions on it been a rather potent propellant of this country to acquire an awesome nuclear deterrence for its security? Wouldn’t saying No to all US aid go the same way for our economic revival and self-reliance?

• We saw this during the process for adoption of Kerry-Lugar Bill when Humiliating clauses were intserted despite strong pretests by people of Pakistan. The move to withold three-fourth of the aid shows that the perception o those who were in favour of total rejection of American assistance that comes with a huge cost was not unfounded. it also confirms the widely held voew in Pakistan that the United States was not a reliable partner and we must maintain a reasonable distance for the sake of national interests. The Americans are stopping aid at the critical juncture when Pakistan was in an unimaginable bad shape both in terms of economy and security only because of its total commitment to the war on terror and deserves more assistance from the international community to sustain this fight. Americans are justifying their move by excuses that Pakistan was not doing enough, despite the fact that 35,000 civilians and over 5,000 soldiers have lost their life in terrorism-related incidents. In fact, Americans want a degree of involvement by Pakistan that the country finds beyond its capacity to absorb. The plan term engagement with Islamabad. Anyhow, we believe that Pakistan has inherent strenght to live without foreign aid that comes at the cost of sovereignty and self-respect.