A Pseudo Ally

(Shaheer Ullah Khan, Kharain)

 When Pakistan came into being, back in 1947, the world had recently seen a terrible end of the World War 2. The world saw a split. The war time allies, i.e. USA and Soviet Union stood face to face, basing their tussle on the ideologies of capitalism and communism. The former being liberal, the later being totalitarian.

Being a newly born state Pakistan had to side any one of these world powers in order to survive in the changing globe. Keeping in glance this need, our first Prime Minister Mr. Liaqat Ali Khan, extended a gesture of friendship to the USA, by rejecting the invitation set forward by the Soviet Union for an official state. Soon, the Prime Minister visited the USA on an official visit. A formal beginning of Pak – U.S relations.

Apparently we have remained allies with USA but big question marks arise when we look at the share of US in this relation ship. Talking directly US has always escaped the scene when Pakistan was in dire in need.

In 1965 Indo – Pak war instead of aiding Pakistan the US stopped sale of arms to Pakistan, accusing us for having relations with china which the US deemed as a rival country. Then in 1971 when Pakistan was on the verge of disintegration the US, although initiated the move of a naval fleet to aid Pakistan in the war, but that fleet never arrived not. Even after Dhaka had fallen.

When in 1974 Pakistan established it military nuclear programme, the USA was greatly alarmed at the possibility of Pakistan being a nuclear power. We could not compromise over our existence, with honor, grace and dignity. The nuclear programme was developed because India hard already achieved that status. It was necessary for us to hold a nuclear arsenal if we wanted to live freely against India’s adverse intentions. Knowing this fact very well, still America pressurized Pakistan and Henry Kissinger threatened our then Prime minister Mr. Bhutto, of making him a symbol of lesson for others. Alhamdulillah today 12 years have passed of us being a nuclear power.

In the Afghan conflict during the soviet invasion, in the beginning America provided Pakistan, which was a front line ally in this war, with only symbolic assistance. It’s a reality that our leadership had to, force the US, in bearing the cost of this war.

Coming ahead, in early 90’s the U.S placed embargos on Pakistan. The F-16 air crafts were not delivered and America created Problems for Pakistan in the form of Presseler amendments. Yet again, not a friendly show.

When Pakistan decided to reveal its nuclear stature to the world, and India in particular, after the Pokhran desert blasts by India in 1998, the United States yet again disturbed Pakistan by placing sanctions and creating problems. We stood firmly and the blasts were conducted on a brave initiative by the then prime minister Mr. Muhammad Nawaz Sharif.

In Sep 2011, the twin towers incident took place and the world was again thrown into a large scale conflict. The U.S alleged Al-Qaeda for these acts and invaded Afghanistan to hunt down Osama Bin Laden, the leader of Al-Qaeda, Pakistan hard to jump in this war as the conflict hard direct effects on us. We could have avoided this war, if America hard not dragged us in it. 10 years have passed of the conflict; Pakistan has sacrificed 35,000 citizens and 6000 military personnel. Our financial losses are at 70 billion dollars. Imagine a poor country like Pakistan facing all these looses. The law and order situation in the country is bad just because of this war on terror. We never asked for this war but now we have to survive it.

Still, the U.S asks us to do more what else can we do? The American drones, all the time violate our integrity and target our citizens. Is this way in which matters are handled with allies? No absolutely not! Finally the US searched Osama Bin Laden, to Abbottabad, and conducted a covert commando operation against him, marking a very serve violation of our sovereignty, in May 2011.

Dear USA we have bearded enough brunt for you. Nor its time that you leave Pakistan alone and stop asking us to do more. It is in the best interest of the world that you go from Afghanistan and Iraq, and leave the Muslim world on its own, so that peace can prevail.

Shaheer Ullah Khan
About the Author: Shaheer Ullah Khan Read More Articles by Shaheer Ullah Khan: 11 Articles with 10858 views My name is Shaheer Ullah Khan and I have done my “A levels” from the Beaconhouse Educational Complex, Rawalpindi.
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