A fatal intolerance

Letter March 05, 2011
The fact is that without American or American-backed assistance, our economy would fail in a matter of weeks.

MELBOURNE: This is with reference to Shireen Mazari’s article of March 5 titled “A fatal intolerance”. I would like to ask the writer a question: When was the last time America was begging Pakistan to accept its aid and loans? What she fails to see through her anti-US/anti-India eyes is the reality that it has been Pakistan which has always begged for aid. To be more precise, it is our politicians, our military and our industrialists who have directly benefitted from US assistance but in the same breath they also spare no chance to criticise it. Our military is perhaps the biggest benefactor of this US largesse.

The fact is that without American or American-backed assistance, our economy would fail in a matter of weeks. Even the rescheduling of IMF and World Bank loans happens thanks to a nudge from the US, so to advocate a position that is tantamount to biting the hand that feeds this nation and has fed it for over 60 years, is foolhardy.

Haris Chaudhry

Published in The Express Tribune, March 6th, 2011.