News
Saturday, May 28, 2011
Marshall Plan-type economic support for Pakistan urged
* Ispahani regrets that Pakistan is projected by many in international news media and by some in US Congress as purveyor of terrorism
WASHINGTON: The United States should pursue a Marshall Plan on the lines of its assistance for European allies after World War II to help bolster Pakistan’s economy as key part of the effort to defeat terrorism in the long-term perspective, a senior adviser to President Asif Ali Zardari advocated on Friday.
MNA Farahnaz Ispahani underscored in an opinion piece in The USA Today that Pakistan is a major victim of terrorism and bringing better economic opportunities to its people can only guarantee enduring success in the two countries’ common struggle against terror threat.
“The US, after the second World War, understood that political stability in vulnerable countries like France, Italy and Greece was intrinsically linked to the viability of their economies. Former president Truman advanced the European Recovery Plan (the Marshall Plan) that brilliantly operationalised this thesis, and by doing so saved Western Europe from communism, she recalled.
The same construct should be applied to Pakistan as we jointly work towards the eradication of terrorism and the rebuilding of a peaceful and stable South and Central Asia.”
Ispahani, who is media adviser to President Zardari, regretted that Pakistan is projected by many in the international news media and by some in the US Congress as a purveyor of terrorism but noted that “in cold fact, it remains its chief victim”.
“Three thousand Pakistani troops have been killed (more than all NATO losses in Afghanistan combined). Add to that 2,000 police cut down, the tragedy of 35,000 civilian casualties and the assassination by terrorists of our country’s most popular leader, Benazir Bhutto, and one might understand Pakistani exasperation. This recent al Qaeda attack on a Pakistani naval base in Karachi, killing 10 of our sailors, again demonstrates that Pakistan is the principal target of terrorist rage.”
Just as many Americans are expressing frustration with what they see as Pakistan’s slow progress in defeating terrorism (most recently underscored by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s visit to Islamabad), Pakistanis are equally frustrated with the increasingly ugly anti-Pakistan sentiment in the United States, she wrote.
“Most Pakistanis simply do not understand how cutting US economic and military aid to Pakistan advances the fight against terrorism,” the member of the National Assembly said.
“How much of our people’s blood does it take for Washington to get it?” she said.
British Prime Minister David Cameron said it most succinctly standing next to President Obama in London earlier this week: “Pakistan has suffered more from terrorism than any country in the world. Their enemy is our enemy. So, far from walking away, we’ve got to work even more closely with them.”
The MNA also drew attention to the slow pace of aid flow under Kerry-Lugar-Berman Act for economic development, health, education, energy and infrastructure, pointing out that only $179 million, according to Senator Dick Lugar, R-Ind., has actually been spent.
“The rest sadly has been bottled up in a bureaucratic quagmire within USAID.” app
Courtesy www.dailytimes.com.pk