Failure of the Embassy or the Government?
By Anila Ali
Irvine , CA
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 the 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 consulates that India has set up in Afghanistan and Pakistani officials have protested openly claiming that RAW (Indian intelligence ) is training Afghans to fight the Pakistan Taliban. Whatever the truth, what can’t be denied is that Pakistan is precariously perched today.
When pressed to root out terrorism from its North, Pakistan has no choice but to send its army to crush the Taliban. Pakistan army is fighting its own people to eradicate terrorists from within. That is not an easy task. This has not only caused a strain on Pakistan’s meager resources, but has 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 are 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 this slogan. In fact, Zardari has made the poor even poorer and the treasury deplete. However, the number of advisors to Zardari keeps on 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 them 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. The Center for American Progress recently convened a meeting of 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, 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 consider this as an attempt to exclude them from any policy-making exercise 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 the Pakistan Embassy Washington, and the government of Pakistan, who should have the vision to look out for Pakistani Americans, as the Indians do. Instead of being in the strongest bargaining position, Pakistanis are in the weakest position.
We protest this exclusion.
