Even America Losing Patience!

Rethinking in Washington



THE influential chairman of the US Senate’s foreign relations committee, Senator Joseph Biden, has joined the State Department and the White House in focusing attention on post-emergency rule events in Pakistan. The senator has spoken eloquently on the need for the US to strengthen democracy in a country where, with the benefit of hindsight, an increasing number of Pakistanis see the US with scepticism and suspicion. He has recommended up to $1.5bn per annum over a decade in additional aid to Islamabad aimed at developing the social sector. The resolve to make these allocations accountable so that funds are not diverted to military use comes built into the proposed formula.

Senator Biden believes that his proposals will help eschew the negative image in the public mind of a US seen eager to do business with autocratic rulers in the past, and thereby showing disregard for democratic aspirations of a vast majority of moderate Pakistanis. Here is a Muslim state armed with nuclear weapons where extremism of the Taliban-Al Qaeda variety is growing, and which is being run by an unpopular, if liberal, ruling clique that oscillates between autocratic and quasi-democratic rule: the recipe, in the senator’s words, for a ‘failed state’. To avoid that fate, Mr Biden has pressed on the US administration the need to have a proactive people-centred policy, as opposed to a policy ‘concentrated on one man’. He also hit the nail on the head when he termed his country’s Islamabad policy as ‘transactional’, whereby Pakistan is paid for delivering certain ‘services’ when so required. He recommended that the US opt for a longer-term engagement with Islamabad.

The belated realisation finally coming home to the Americans, nonetheless, is welcome. But words will have to be matched with action on the ground. The unfolding events in Pakistan since the imposition of emergency rule, the crackdown on civil society and political parties having a mass appeal, the strangulation of an independent judiciary and media, all are factors that will put the reviewed American resolve to test with the people of this country. Since 9/11 there has been little scarcity felt of the funds coming to Pakistan because of the ‘transactional’ nature of the US policy on its global ‘war on terrorism’ and the fulfilment of its objectives through Pakistan. What the country needs is institutional infrastructure with a capacity to spend such funds to the benefit of the people, and with some accountability. Also needed is a strong political will in the rulers in Islamabad to improve the social sectors. This has been lacking because of the autocratic nature of governance which many believe owes its perpetuation to American acquiescence. Unless practical steps are taken to implement its reformed policy prerogatives and results are seen to be delivering by the people of Pakistan, Washington’s Islamabad dilemma will continue.