With friends like these, you don’t need enemies,’ goes the famous saying in the East that fully explains Pakistan-US relations. Americans have always been considered unpredictable friends in Pakistan and the Americans themselves, time and again, have proved that if a dominant majority of Pakistanis is wary of increasing American influence in Pakistan then it is justified in being so.

The latest controversy generated by Kerry-Lugar aid bill to Pakistan has come as a shocker to most Pakistanis. They are caught non-plus and are not able to figure out whether it has come from a friend or some entity that is highly suspicious of Pakistan . This aid cannot be called anything but an aid in bad faith.

There is yet another dictum vogue in the East that beggars are not choosers. This, however, does not fit Pakistan . The American sphinx in the State Department must understand that Pakistan , although some of its leaders are brandishing begging bowls across the globe, is not a begging nation. Very valiantly it is clearing the American mess in the region and has already paid manifold the prices the American can ever dream of paying back.

Even though the US is deemed as the richest nation of the world yet as regards acknowledging its debt to other nations it is the poorest on earth. It is so self conceited that at times it seems farther away from other nations than the physical span of the Atlantic and the Pacific Oceans should permit. Further, unethical, unscrupulous and illogical policies of the State Department in conjunction with equally amoral and inhuman tactics of the CIA and other intelligence agencies of the US, have demonised Americans in most part of the globe.

Islamo-phobia that swept across the West in the post 9/11 years took its toll on the sense of justice and fair play of most Western leaders especially George W Bush and his acolytes who religiously followed the devil in footsteps. The West was completely robbed of any moral authority it ever had despite its blind support to Israel whose excesses on innocent old men, women and children were quite indicative of West’s paucity of humanitarian feelings regarding Palestinians.

Since early fifties Pakistan has been serving the US regional interests in the second fiddle quite at the cost of its own national interests. Although Pakistan’s own leadership can be blamed for all the diplomatic and strategic debacles between Pakistan and the US, yet American unfounded suspicion and mistrust for Pakistan and its complacency for India, Pakistan’s avowed arch rival, was the result of America’s own misjudgement coupled with crooked understand-ing of its priorities in the region.

The Kerry-Lugar bill indicates that the same mistake carries on. Despite being on the same page since 1979 as regards the US fight against growing Russian influence, its containment and then fight against extremism in the region and finally its war on terror, what has Pakistan gained from the US friendship?

The US regional policies have hurt Pakistan most than any other nation in the region. We had to face the full brunt of Kalashnikov and heroin culture along with the twisted religious extremism that was channelled against Russians in Afghanistan . Once Russians went out of Afghanistan the US also lost interest in the region and abandoned Pakistan to clean Aegean stables of American regional follies.

Now when Pakistan is already knee deep in its fight against extremism and terrorism and the US is being served by default in Afghanistan, instead that the US should thankfully extend its all out material and moral support to Pakistan and declared its unwavering assistance to the civilian as well as military establishment to carry on with the daring work Pakistanis are doing, it is creating wedge between the civil and the military establishment as if they are inimical to each other.

It is quite recognizable that now under President Obama, the US 
administration has acknowledged Pakistan ’s services and despite the economic crunch it has extended 1.5 billion annual civilian aid to Pakistan, however, the language of the bill belies that it is from a friendly country. It seems to have come from a super-power that intends to oblige a cliental state.

If the Americans think they want to pay Pakistan for the services rendered since 1979 so that they should not feel obliged to Pakistan , then they should calculate the cost of their war on Iraq and Afghanistan and pay on discount only one third of the cost so far. If there is any doubt, have a survey of Pakistan . About 90 percent of people of Pakistan have lost faith in American friendship.

Thanks to people’s general apathy for religious parties they are not paying any atten-tion to Jamat e Islami’s slogan of ‘Go America Go’, otherwise, the US policies and its attitude towards Pakistan is quite annoying to many a Pakistani at home and abroad.

On the other hand, immediate indulgence of our pro-government politicians and jour-nalists into polemics on issues that require deeper thinking and careful assessment can be regarded as childish, juvenile rather highly irresponsible at best. In their eager-ness to get dollars, they have completely ignored how leaders of an independent and sovereign nation should behave.

If the controversial clauses in Kerry Lugar bill are due to the influence of Jewish and Indian lobbies in the US, which tantamount to US inability to safeguard its own national interests, then what moral authority its has to decide upon Pakistan’s natio-nal interests. Pakistan army is Pakistan ’s internal issue. Further, the US influence on Pakistan army has proved detrimental to Pakistan ’s interests.

The US has always supported military dictators without any qualms. Over a eriod of time people of Pakistan will sort out the problem of military intervention in Pakistan ’s civilian affairs whereas the American involvement in such affairs is the part of the problem not the solution: crutches for healthy body are handicaps.

Pakistan does need economic and military help from all friends though. The US , under obligation, should be the first country to offer such help to Pakistan uncond-itionally. Pakistan army has born losses in men and material in its war against terror ten times the losses the NATO forces and the US army have born altogether in Afghanistan .

If the US can recognize the fact that Pakistan is fighting the war against terror jointly then it should recognise this through some tangible deeds not promises. Legislations like Pressler Amendment and Kerry Lugar bill indicate American disrespect to Pakistan ’s sovereignty, stability and territorial integrity, which conversely show American naivety on dealing with friends.

Information

The latest controver-sy generated by Kerry-Lugar aid bill to Pakistan has come  as a shocker to most Pakistanis. They are caught non-plus and are not able to figure out whether it has come from a friend or some entity that is highly suspicious of Pakistan . This aid cannot be called anything but an aid in bad faith. 

First appeared in Pakistan Observer, Islamabad on October 19, 2009