Sunday, December 22, 2024

 

The Reality of Pak-US Relations
By Prof. Dr. S. Farooq Hasnat
Columbia, MD

This is in reference to the views held in Pakistan about the prevalent friendly attitude of the Bush administration towards President Pervez Musharraf. President Musharraf has read the intensions of the Americans all wrong. The kind of support that the Pakistani President is getting from Washington is not because of his admiration by the American President as an effective leader. Rather the US is assessing its options against international terrorism, where the Pakistani establishment fits well.
The US administration and the Congress, which is an important part of the foreign policy making process, knows that the Pakistani President and the Army Generals are not backed by the Pakistani people. They are also aware that the Generals are responsible for the decay of the Pakistani society, in a number of ways - in terms of politics and existing miserable economic conditions. The American people are also shocked and dismayed when told that after retirement the Army Generals become the vice chancellors of the public universities.
In the light of the above American awareness, there should be no misgiving that the United States will continue to be on the softer side of the Pakistani establishment. We are all aware that the Pakistani establishment never “opted” to be on the American side, they were forced to take that stance, otherwise, even after 9/11 the establishment continued to have very close ties with the Taliban, knowing well the policies and preferences of the Afghan rulers.
Let the matters of international terrorism settle, the reality of Pak-US relations would become crystal clear.

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Editor: Akhtar M. Faruqui
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