Tuesday, May 26, 2009
Ahmed Quraishi
Pakistan’s biggest revenue-generating business hub city of Karachi was paralyzed by ethnic violence for the third time in less than six months. Our American allies continue to create worldwide confusion about Pakistan’s strategic weapons programmes. And our silence on Washington’s Afghan blunders has been purchased for a few billion dollars in US aid pledges on humiliating terms. You would think we have enough on our plate to keep us busy. Yet our foreign minister surprises us by finding time to protest how the government of Burma treats that country’s opposition leader.
Instead of summoning the US ambassador to protest the leaks campaign in the American media against Pakistan’s nuclear programme, which is successfully and gradually turning the world against Pakistan [as evident from the disturbing statements from Russia and from the Shanghai Cooperation Organization], the Pakistani Foreign Office instead calls the ambassador of Burma and delivers a demarche.
We share good relations with Burma, have strategic interest in that country, and the issue of the opposition leader is none of our business. Aung San Suu Kyi is strongly backed by Washington, which in turn is pursuing hardcore strategic interests of its own in trying to destabilize the government of Burma using democracy and human rights as an excuse. Then there’s the statement by our ambassador to the US informing the world that we are ready to ‘phase out’ our nuclear capability if India does the same. While Mr Haqqani’s statement may have some diplomatic value, its damage far outweighs its benefit. The Am-Brit media has already twisted it to mean Pakistan should do it first and then maybe India will follow suit. Why the self-defeating attitude?
Revolution Required 