US Aid Package Angers Pakistanis
By Riaz Haq
CA
As Mr. Obama met with his national security advisers for three hours to discuss Pakistan last week, there was mounting opposition in Pakistan to the terms of the just approved Kerry-Lugar Bill offering $1.5 billion a year in US aid for the next five years.
The US media reports suggest that the opposition is coming mainly from the powerful Pakistan Army. However, it appears from a recent Gallup poll that there is growing distrust of the United States among ordinary Pakistanis as well. What seems to be adding fuel to the fire are the language and the conditions in the US aid bill that hold Pakistan implicitly responsible for all acts of terror in its neighborhood.
Specifically, the bill, also known as the Enhanced Partnership with Pakistan Act, says as follows: "... ceasing support, including by any elements within the Pakistan military or its intelligence agency, to extremist and terrorist groups, particularly to any group that has conducted attacks against the United States or coalition forces in Afghanistan, or against the territory or people of neighboring countries; (B) preventing al-Qaeda, the Taliban and associated terrorist groups, such as Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammed, from operating in the territory of Pakistan, including carrying out cross-border attacks into neighboring countries, closing terrorist camps in the Fata, dismantling terrorist bases of operations in other parts of the country, including Quetta and Muridke, and taking action when provided with intelligence about high-level terrorist targets."
It is widely believed that, by accepting this aid package, the Pakistan government is endorsing the Bill's offensive language and accepting the terrorism allegations and humiliating conditions, while paving the way for a much larger US footprint in Pakistan that will undermine its sovereignty.
The Gallup poll exclusively done for Aljazeera TV and released in August shows that 59% of Pakistanis believe that the US is the biggest threat to Pakistan, followed by India (18%) and Taliban (11%) as much lesser threats. Fully 67% of the people oppose the US drone attacks against Taliban and al Qaeda in Pakistan.
The fear of growing US presence in the region does not mean that people support the Taliban, as 41% of them favor the Pakistani military operation against the Taliban while 24% oppose it. Support for the military against the Taliban is the strongest among Sindhis at 64%, followed by 50% among Urdu-speaking Mohajirs and 49% among Pushtoons. Only 28% of Punjabis support the military operation but a smaller 25% oppose it. The people of the most populous province of Punjab appear to be the most divided on this issue, which is also in line with only 31% support for the military operation among those identifying with Nawaz Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League.
In addition to the bad economy impacting many people, the fact that President Asif Ali Zardari is seen as caving in to the US demands is hurting his popularity. Only 11% approve of him while a whopping 42% think he is doing a bad job.
The Gallup results are also confirmed by a more recent IRI survey results in Pakistan. The survey released in early October by the International Republican Institute, a non-profit group promoting democracy whose board is headed by Senator John McCain, found that Pakistanis remained sharply critical of US military efforts.
Eighty percent of Pakistanis disagreed with cooperation with the United States on the " war on terror," a figure that shot up 19 points since March, the survey said.
At the same time, 86 percent agreed that Taliban and Al-Qaeda militants posed a problem for Pakistan and more than two-thirds supported a recent Pakistani army offensive on extremists.
In one of the sharpest swings, the polls showed that Pakistanis were growing increasingly pessimistic about their own economic future. Some 58 percent expected their economic situation to worsen in the coming year, up from 36 percent in March.
It appears that the whole process by which the US aid package has been handled by the US and Pakistani governments is proving to be counterproductive, jeopardizing the chances of peace and stability in the region. Not only has it angered both the military and the public in Pakistan, it has the potential of seriously hurting political stability in Pakistan, further diminishing the chances of economic recovery in the near future, thus reducing the probability of success against the perpetrators of terror. In sensitive relationships like the one between the US and Pakistan, there should have been a lot more quite diplomacy and much less public display of the US pressure and growing presence in Pakistan.
Rather than further inflaming the already explosive situation by unnecessary rhetoric, it is time for both governments to try and salvage the relationship, and their common fight against the terrorists, by engaging in serious damage control on both sides.
www.riazhaq.com
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