Need for Continued Pak-US Dialogue
By Pervaiz Lodhie
Torrance , CA

 

You have here a small representation of some of the finest Americans, who also happened to be from Pakistan. We are deeply concerned about Pakistan ’s poor governance, corrupt politicians and judges. However, as American citizens, we are also very concerned about the worsening economic direction of our country, and its increasing isolation in the global community. There is a major trust deficit. The US-Pakistan relationship has gone from bad to worse.

For decades, the people of Pakistan have been suffering and paying a heavy price for their alliance with America . Pakistan was had been a secular country, but thanks to the United States’ actions in Pakistan, fundamentalism has taken root in the last 30 years.

The fundamentalists are slowing but surely succeeding because they are well funded and focused on a well-defined and fixed agenda. They have taken over genuine madrassas and converted them and many more into places for teaching hatred and fanaticism. Three and four-year-olds are lured away from their poor families and — after years and years of “Single Subject” education — are made into thoroughly-brainwashed, teenage suicide bombers and terrorists. Today, we have a small window of opportunity. If not seized, this opportunity will be gone tomorrow. America is spending billions of dollars annually in the region. The resource needed to start turning these negatives around at much lower costs is yet be recognized or engaged by either the US lawmakers in Washington, DC or the government of Pakistan in Islamabad. You are now sitting with a small sampling of this powerful yet unused resource.

Mainly based in Southern California, we have been around for decades, and yet we remain invisible to DC and Islamabad as a key resource to this very day. We have helped save and create thousands and thousands of jobs in America , and have positively affected the economy of this country by billions of dollars.

We, for years, have been actively engaged in creating badly needed jobs in Pakistan . We also have supported and been involved in many successful education and health programs like NCHD, TCF, and DIL in Pakistan over the years. We don’t want to re-invent the wheel. All we want is for the United States to take these models to a larger scale with our help, and at a fraction of the cost.

I am sure that with your help, Madam Ambassador, we will have a continued dialogue with the State Department in DC and the Embassy in Islamabad.

(Remarks at meeting of a group of Pakistani Americans with Anne W. Patterson, Ambassador of the US in Pakistan, Torrance, March 5, 2010)