Helping us in our hour of need

DUBLIN: This is with reference to “How America can make a difference” (August 12) by Shehrbano Taseer.  I am a Pakistani and like many others I am pained to see the plight of our country and its people. However, I don’t think what Ms Taseer is suggesting is a great idea. Trust can only be built, it cannot be bought; particularly by spending aid to help us on the one hand and doing something else to hurt us on the other. We should learn something from India and stop begging.

Also, if Pakistan stops taking militants head on, the entire world will have to face them. We should also accept that it was just Pakistan who nurtured them. The US, the Gulf states and certain other countries also promoted these terrorists in the past. However, it is now only Pakistan that is suffering colossal economic losses as a result of the ongoing war on terror. Our investments have dried up and the word tourism is not in our dictionaries. It is only fair that other parties take up their share of economic losses being suffered by Pakistan. I wonder why our government is so shy in making a forceful demand in this regard. Is it because we are used to begging so much that we have even forgotten to claim what is our right?

Published in The Express Tribune, August 16^th, 2010.