President Asif Ali Zardari’s visit to the US continues to be commented upon. Stran-gely enough though, his detractors have got nothing to appreciate, whereas, his  prop-onents have got all that can send anyone to gleeful ecstasy.

This can happen only in Pakistan where political polarisation is so acute and  discrimi-natory that political strategists and analysts divided into various warring camps can’t help looking at things through the prisms of their loyalties and bias. In Pakistan the truth seekers always read between the lines or go beyond the stated ‘facts’ and dis-cover the truth subjectively.

It is always a revealing experience. Our ‘unenlightened and immoderate’ writers and political strategists whenever talk about the US they mix all the hate in their wisdom and acumen and in one sweeping statement blame America of all the evils besetting us.

With twisted arguments and distorted logic they demand of the current leadership to distance Pakistan from America. They simply lose sight of the fact that Pakistan, a nation of 160 million people, is part of the global economy, whose epicentre is America .

We may hate America, object to the unjust policies of the State Department, react insistently to Pentagon’s aggressive designs on the region, censure its exploitative economic policies; we can’t stop dealing with it unless we go back to eighteenth century economy.

In this age of internet banking, modern means of communication, new set of trade and commerce, and increased man to man contact of people across the globe, we can’t chain our people at home. If we are not able to break our people’s contact with the outside world then we can’t stop dealing with the US and its economic, military and political institutions. However, if are wise we can benefit from these relations. This “madrassa” mentality of calling our contacts with 
various agencies, the US administration, as “haram” and futile is itself extremely fatal and deadly for Pakistan .

Such voice can’t and should not be stifled however, the truth must be brought to light so that Pakistan ’s interests are not compromised. Even though president Zardari’s recent visit to the US was not his official visit of the US, as he had gone there to attend the UN session and all the heads of states and governments who visit the US to attend the UN sessions are guests of the UN and not of the US, Mr. Zardari, received more attention from the US and other dignitaries, than was his due. How unlucky though at home, that he was dragged into Sara Pauline’s controversy. And the same ‘Madrassa Mentality’ people who even don’t know the ABC of diplomacy made it a shameful case for Pakistan.

Do they not know that in diplomacy one has to charm others with nice gestures and tempting words uttered properly and according to the situation in the nick of time? When two leaders feel predisposed towards each other, two nations came together. It no more remains their personal affairs, nations are brought together.

All leaders have displayed such sense of humour, wit and hilarity. There was sparkle and vivacity in Quaid-e Azam. Ayub Khan, Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto and even Parveez Musharraf have displayed similar exuberance and chirpiness.  Internationally we don’t have dearth of leaders, who have been famous for their sense of humor. With us the situation is entirely different. We have a strong and vocal lobby, ever rejected by people, that is against the very premise of  maintaining good relations with America.

America to them is the Devil incarnate, and any overture towards America is an act of sin. How brutal their religiosity can be that they can very  conveniently  reject and write off about 300 million people of all faiths living in America with one jerk. Such jehadi mindset is lethal for Pakistan and must be countered with whatever modest means we have at our disposal.

Even Iranians whose favourite mantra was ‘death to America ’ are slowly realising that there is no escape maintaining good relations with the West especially America.  Without compromising with their national interests they are ready now to alleviate all western concerns regarding their nuclear programme just to break free from the shackles the international isolation the West is throwing them into.

One may ask how the trip fared. There are some areas where genuine criticism can be granted, however, the semi-official trip of president Zardari did go well. The crowing fixture of the trip, despite Jehadists’ reservation was ‘Friends of Pakistan’ forum.

We did not beg for money; we needed to take our friends into confidence  regarding our difficulties relating to our war against terror and its direct fallouts on Pakistan ’s economy and society. The instant success of the forum was significant and pointed to the respect and regards the participating countries had for Pakistan .

The first meeting of the forum was held on 26 September which was attended by Britain , Germany , the US , China , UAE, Canada , Turkey , Australia and Italy at foreign minister level alongwith United Nations and European Unions.

The participants agreed to form a partnership with Pakistan to develop a  comprehen-sive and coordinated approach to the security development and  political needs of the country. They acknowledged though that Pakistan needed to undertake serious economic reforms and agreed to look at improved trade access for Pakistan to their markets.

They also agreed to encourage private sector involvement in the economic develop-ment of Pakistan . Stable and prosperous Pakistan is regional and global need as such the canopy of Pakistan ’s friends is to be essentially global and must rise above all petty considerations of regional politics.

German vice chancellor Mr. Steinmeier hit the right cord when he said that  ‘internal stability in Pakistan is key to security and stability in the region.’ He said the group of countries who have met was ‘prepared to help with internal  stabilisation at first economically and then by helping to improve conditions in the educational system and government institutions.

’ The next meeting of the forum on the invitation of the UAE is being held in Abu Dhabi at the end of October. The meeting was held on the margins of the UN General Assembly session when tension between the US and Pakistan ran very high as a day earlier Pakistan and US troops had exchanged fire along Pak-Afghan border as Pakistani troops had fired at two intruding US helicopters.

President Zardari called it ‘friendly fire’ which it is understood can often be  repeated  unless the US understood that its unilateral incursions into Pakistan’s air space and random rocket attacks inside Pakistan are not helping a bit in its fight against terror, rather, its attacks conversely resuscitate support for extremist outfits in the area. Brawn of the US in shape of logistic support to Pakistan and brainy action of Pakistan is the crucial combination if the world is to succeed in its war against terror in the region.

Information

Our ‘unenlightened and immoderate’ writers and political strategists whenever talk about the US they mix all the hate in their wisdom and acumen and in one sweeping state-ment blame America of all the evils besetting us.

 First appeared in Pakistan Observer on   October 09, 2008