NATO, Bring Your Own Food

On 9/11, when we opted to go “with them”, instead of going “against them”, it was thought by our junta that now weren’t bombed out to the stone age, and things will be better.

The then US foreign minister Colin Powell and the deputy foreign minister Richard Armitage hailed Pakistani decision of going with them, and forgot the stone age. But the 95% of Pakistani population is wondering about what they gained from becoming a favorite US ally in its war against terrorism?

They lost much and gained very little. All the largesse and greenbacks coming from the Uncle Sam to Pakistan vanished in the thin air, and Pakistanis are now finding it hard even to get a single “roti”. They don’t have jobs, and they don’t have security. They don’t have food and they don’t have electricity. They don’t have oil, and they don’t have gas. They don’t have past, and they don’t have present, and now they are wondering about their future.

Substantial concessions given by Pakistani regime to United States achieved nothing for the common Pakistanis. Pakistan gave away unprecedented concessions to the US army and the NATO forces to launch attacks on Taliban and the so-called Al-Qaeda militants. Pakistan not only provided land and air to these forces, but also food and other consumer goods.

This created a strong reaction in Pakistan, especially in the NWFP region. Not only people disapproved of the blatant and useless attacks, but also that resulted in acute shortage of food and clothing in Pakistan. Prices were never so high in Pakistan of things of daily usage. Flours, pulses, vegetables, fruits, oil and other household things get smuggled to Afghanistan, where the fortified NATO forces are devouring it without taking burps, and in Pakistan people are frantically searching for the flour.

Terrorism is also on the rise throughout Pakistan, and suicide bombers are spreading. People are really terrified of death through a suicide bomber, and of death through hunger.