Pakistan is strife with rumors of US building a fortress of an embassy to camouflage a military base in the heart of Islamabad and Karachi. Many Pakistanis believe that US wants to destabilize Pakistan and that it’s in the interest of the US to Balkanize Pakistan so that it can secure Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal. Many are protesting the 12 embassies that India has set up in Kabul and Pakistani officials have protested that openly claiming that RAW (Indian Intelligence ) is training Afghans to fight Pakistan Talibans. Whatever the truth what can’t be denied is that, Pakistan is sitting in a very precarious position today.
When pressured to root our terrorism from its North, Pakistan had no choice but to send its army to root out Taliban. Pakistan army is fighting its own people to eradicate terrorists from within. That is not an easy task. This not only caused a strain on its meager resources, but also displaced about two million of the poorest people from their homes in the North causing an immense burden on the already weak economy of Pakistan. Thus Pakistan and its people are making huge sacrifices to help the US fight the extremists. What is our government getting in return? The 1.5 billion dollars will trickle into Pakistan through developmental projects, which we’ve all heard about before and which never really have reached the hands of the poor. It could be different this time since there seems to be more oversight of the monies going to Pakistan.
We know that our US government and State department is aware of the corruption that Zardari is tainted with and how his government has done nothing to give “roti,kapra,aur makan” (food, clothing, and shelter) to the common people who stood behind its slogan. In fact, Zardari has made the poor even poorer and the treasury deplete. However, the number of advisors to Zardari keeps increasing, the VIP culture is back as a nuisance and
Basic necessities like electricity and clean water are still non-existent. Despite the lack of progress and abject poverty in Pakistan, the only reason, I remain, hopeful, is that the people elected Zardari and through this extreme suffering during his tenure; they will learn to vote better in the next elections. After all, Americans waited patiently for years to choose a better leader after Bush’s policies alienated Americans from the rest of the world and caused the complete destruction of two countries in the name of bringing democracy, so can Pakistanis.
Then we come to the very important issue of where the money from the Kerry-Lugar Bill will really go and what is Obama’s policy toward Pakistan. . Center for American Progress recently held a meeting of the all the agencies working on AfPak. What was most surprising was that not a single Pakistani was on Holbrooke’s Interagency Team on AfPak. What is even more surprising is that the Senior Defense Advisor to President Obama on Pakistan and Afghanistan is Mr.Vikram Singh. The Senior Advisor on AfPak is Vali Nasr, an Iranian expert on “shiaism”.
Pakistani Americans are considering this as an attempt to exclude them from any policy making for their native country. This is contrary to what the President was saying to the Pakistani community. Candidate Obama told us that he would engage us in policy making that directly affects Pakistan. Who would know Pakistan better than us?
But then why are we excluded from advisory positions? It’s a failure on the part of Pakistan Embassy Washington, and the government of Pakistan, who should have the vision to look out for Pakistani Americans, like the Indians do. Instead, being the strongest bargaining position, Pakistanis are in the weakest position.
We protest this exclusion.
Anila Ali
Teacher, Community Organizer, Journalist, Activist
18845 Tabor Drive,
Irvine, Ca 92603
www.anilaali.com
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