partitioning India was based on creating peace in the subcontinent, not perpetuating violence. Once a relationship of trust is established between the two countries, Pakistan will be able to focus on more important issues.
In the aftermath of the Cold War, Pakistan benefited much less from the transformed global economy and polity compared to other partners of the US. Pakistan could neither capture new markets nor exert any political or military influence anywhere for more economic gains. This has been continuously argued that if Pakistan becomes strong from within, both economically and politically, we would be able to define new ways of engagement with global economic and military powers, based on equality, respect and understanding of each other's culture.
Only through building a strong economy and giving democratic rights to its citizens, can terms of partnership with everyone, including the US, be revised. Anti-imperialism does not make me see the American society as a whole an enemy of the aspirations of the Pakistani people. The progressive sections of Western societies are fast realising that neo-colonialism and establishing new order through military might is not only inhumane, unjust and destructive at a moral level, it is self-defeating and exacerbates resistance.
We all live in a far more insecure and unhappy world than ever before. Concentrated intellectual and social investment is needed in building alliances with progressive sections of American and British societies and their institutions, rather than coercive state administrations. The same applies to the policy towards other important global players like China, Japan, Russia and the European Union.
Pakistan has gained substantially from China in terms of effective and economically beneficial projects of power generation and physical infrastructure. However, more technology transfer and access to Chinese markets should be sought rather than Pakistan being turned into a dumping ground for Chinese consumables. Besides, Pakistan needs to deepen existing relations with the European countries to learn from them and to invite both financial and technical investment from countries like the UK, Germany and France. Once again I argue that like in all other areas essential for national survival and prosperity of its people, Pakistan needs a different and better conceived foreign policy paradigm.
The writer is an Islamabad-based poet and rights campaigner. Email: harrisspopk.org