It’s a common scene in a third world country that you find beggars every now and then while passing through the streets. No matter how much you abuse them, make them realize that they are no more than a pesticide and a burden on the society, in the end they will walk by with all the prayers after you have tossed a 5 rupee coin out of the window. Well of course no different was the perception of US Senate after it passes a negligible package of 1.5 billion $ for Pakistan.
Being here nearly 10,000 miles away I and many like me have no real grudge with the amount, but it’s the conditionality of the bill which has really pinched every soul. For 8 years they have hijacked our national dream, have given us a war that wasn’t our originally, taken our sovereign right of existence and in the end they have repaid us in a manner which shouldn’t be strange to the realist, but of course we have for long turned into an idealist masses, linking false expectations and desires from an outside power.
Just a day has passed when I came across a very interesting discussion on a private channel which also featured Pakistan’s Ambassador to USA Hussain Haqqani. In the end he summed up with two logics, which I could derive. Firstly, he threw every thing into the parliament’s basket by stating clearly that it holds the power to reject in case it is not acceptable. Of course, all we hear from our top establishment is the claim that we have moved into a true democratic era and it’s the parliament that will reign. So one is still optimistic that the opposition will move out from its “friendly†status and the ruling coalition will also take it as a disgrace on our sacrifices for the global peace (although we still have Nizam e Adal episode in our memory). To this extent Mr. Haroon was absolutely right. In the later part he argued that it was a draft by US senate and it’s their exclusive domain to add condition or make recommendations to whatever draft they pass.
Being the ambassador of a country like Pakistan which has served as a front line state in this war, it was and its his duty to project the real demands, efforts and accomplishments of his country and in case this is the result we have no other option but to say that it was no less than a diplomatic and foreign policy failure on behalf of our administration.
Tit for Tat is the name of the game. Just a week back there were reports circulating that Mr. Haqqani personally protested against the rejection of visas to certain US individuals, which were found involved in anti Pakistan activities. May be he should have taken some time out to protest baseless predator attacks inside Pakistan for the last many years, US involvement in the insurgency taking place in NWFP and the perception US high ups carry regarding Pakistan.
On the other hand the bill as one critic called has been drafted it seems by some special lobbies in US rather than the senate itself. From Dr Qadeer to Muridke, intervention into Armed forces to out intelligence networks this has been one pathetic draft in history that has no match. It is high time that once and for all US must be shown the exit door. A start has been taken in case of the raid on “inter risk†for its suspicious activities and it is required that more actions must be taken to put a halt to US involvement inside Pakistan.
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