At a time when Pakistan was fighting the American war, the US was supplying piles of weapons to India.
LAHORE: Whose war has Pakistan been fighting since the 9/11? For whose sake has Pakistan, as a front line ally, sacrificed thousands of people including army personnel and lost over trillions of dollars? Obviously, for one else but America.
Given that Pakistan is a key partner in fighting terror, it must be noted that Americans have not given a single useful weapon that can be used effectively against terrorists. It only gave the so-called Coalition Support Fund (CSF) — a sort of rent — which not only puts an embargo on weapons’ sale, but also stops weapon-manufacturing countries from selling arms to Pakistan.
The weapons that the terrorists use are far more sophisticated than the ones used by the Pakistan Army. Yet, there has been stepped up pressure from Washington to ‘do more’, such as go and launch an operation in North Waziristan. Even now when Americans have swapped Taliban prisoners with their prisoners, the US is opposed to Nawaz Sharif’s idea of talking to the Taliban. Highly intriguingly, this apparent American war has now been made Pakistan’s war and the country does not even have the permission to fight it in its own way.
Ironically, at a time when Pakistan was fighting the American war, the US was supplying piles of weapons to India. Rather it inked a civil nuclear deal with New Delhi. Now in a Cold War revival scenario, Russia has decided to lift the embargo, Pakistan needs a sufficient number of war machinery to cope with the menace of terrorism. So no need for the Americans to get annoyed or the Indians to worry about us — we are on a course to clear our own mess and come what may, we will succeed.
Marya Mufty
Published in The Express Tribune, June 4th, 2014.
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