| by Muhammad Khurshid Page 1 of 1 page(s) | | |   |
Tribesmen Value US Troops Sacrifices There might be a lot of people who will be against the war on terrorism launched by the United States, but most of the tribesmen think that war on terror was a must for saving the world from total destruction. This is the reason they valued the sacrifices being made by the US forces. Pakistan is a strange ally in the war on terror. On the one hand, it has accepted the role of frontline state in the war on terror, but on the other hand, it is busy in the promotion of terrorism. The main cause of terrorism is corruption and the US may have discovered this fact. They may have stopped paying dollars to the officials, however, nowadays they are busy in creating the impression that Pakistanis hate Americans.
A Pakistan official said that the US has been losing trust of Pakistanis. Just read his statement: Pakistan-US relations are passing through a difficult phase due to growing mistrust among the people of Pakistan about US polices, said PM Secretariat Foreign Affairs Additional Secretary Zamir Akram.
He was addressing a seminar titled ‘Pakistan-US relations in the post-9/11 scenario’ organised by the Institute of Strategic Studies, Islamabad (ISSI) here on Thursday. Akram said presently, there was a downward slide in relations as Pakistan was being told what it should do in terms of war on terror. He said there were concerns within the country that the next US administration might not pose favourably to Pakistan.
He said Pakistan viewed its relations with the US in a strategic sense but the US approached this relationship in a tactical manner on need basis, as in the case of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and in present context for Pakistan’s assistance in the war on terror, it had been declared a non-NATO ally. He said there had been substantive increase in US aid in the education sector and in help for strengthening border areas with Afghanistan, however there was no long-term commitment as, for example, granting market access to Pakistan textiles in the US.
“Pakistan has been asking for the transfer of technology and a free trade agreement with the US, but this has not happened, creating doubts about Pakistan’s relation with the US,” he added. He said Pakistan-US relationship was in the influence of certain powerful lobbies in the US. In this regard, he gave the example of the Jewish lobby and the influence it exercised on US policy decisions. “The Indian lobby and the presence of a large Indian community in America have bolstered this lobby, which builds up and supports Indian interests with US policymakers,” said Akram.
“A majority of Americans see Pakistan as a fundamentalist state, which lacked democracy and was intolerant towards others, but Pakistanis see the US as having double standards as for example its discourse on democracy,” he added. “We do have a problem with US double standards. The US has engaged in this self-proclaimed war on terror over the last six years in pursuit of a wrong objective,” he said, adding that the US was not prepared to acknowledge the root causes of terrorism which were basically rooted in alienation, frustration and anger.
He said Pakistan-US relations were confronting two problems. “One is the threat of sanctions and the second is the threat of direct military action inside Pakistan,” he said. He termed the present US approach towards Pakistan as a lethal combination of arrogance and stupidity, which would not serve well to achieve goals.
ISSI Director General Dr Shireen Mazari said US-Pakistan relations had two important parameters - the bilateral relationship based on bilateral issues and cooperation/divergence and the impact of broader US policies in the South Asian region. She, however, said the former had always been premised on the latter and therefore the Pakistan-US relationship had never been stable and enduring.
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