Pak-US ties – a review

LAHORE: During the US Secretary of State John Kerry’s recently-concluded visit to India, Washington D.C. and New Delhi have pledged to increase their bilateral trade volume from the existing $97 billion to $500 billion within the next few years.
The figure of $500 billion should not be deemed unrealistic in any way, because the US-China bilateral trade volume rests at $579 billion at present, despite all the animosity and hostility between the two globally-acknowledged super powers.
The $97 billion US-India trade volume is thus 5.7 times more than the current Pakistan-US trade volume, which rests at around $5.5 billion only.
Now that Secretary John Kerry is in Pakistan, most political, defence and economic analysts may expect that the discussions on security issues are most likely to overshadow any trade-related matters. The traditional Pak-India friction might well be debated too.
However, customary statements of bilateral cooperation in sectors like energy etc might be issued before John Kerry flies for Switzerland on Wednesday.
A peek into the history of the ‘roller coaster’ diplomatic ties between the two countries reveals that Pakistan and United States have seldom been on the same page since they had ‘befriended’ each other on October 20, 1947.
Quaid-i-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah was the first Pakistani leader to communicate with the then American President Harry Truman.
But despite having years of poor inter-governmental relations, the rocky Pak-US “friendship and cooperation” has somehow continued and during the last 67 years, the Washington DC has dished out over $70 billion in aid to Pakistan till date. In 2011, the Centre for Global Development (an American nonprofit think tank based in Washington D.C) had stated: “The United States began providing economic assistance along and military aid to Pakistan shortly after the country’s creation in 1947. In total, the United States obligated nearly $67 billion to Pakistan between 1951 and 2011.”
Similarly, a 2011 report published by an esteemed British newspaper “The Guardian” had also confirmed that the United States had provided nearly $67 billion to Pakistan between 1948 and 2011.
Research and calculations conducted by the Jang Group/Geo TV Network, by taking into consideration the relevant content from the American Overseas Loans and Grants: Obligations and Loan Authorisations (aka the Green Book), a Congressional Research Service document titled “Direct Overt US Aid Appropriations and Military Reimbursements to Pakistan,” tell the same story.
The American Overseas Loans and Grants: Obligations and Loan Authorization estimates take into account the data on Coalition Support Fund (CSF) spending to the military assistance category. While CSF is not technically foreign assistance, it has constituted the bulk of military assistance to Pakistan during the post-9/11 period.
Between 2002 and 2014, Pakistan had received more than $21 billion in military and economic aid from the United States, including $11.5 billion as military assistance.
According to the February 23, 2010 edition of “The Times of India,” the total US aid to Pakistan had stood at more than $20.7 billion between September 2001 and February 2010.
In 2003, the US had officially written off $1 billion Pakistani debt as a “reward” for Pakistan joining the War on Terror and in October 2009, the US Congress had approved $7.5 billion of non-military aid to Pakistan over the next five years via the Kerry-Lugar Bill.
In February 2010, US President Barack Obama had sought to increase funds to Pakistan to promote economic and political stability in strategically important regions where the United States has special security interests.
Obama had also sought $3.1 billion aid for Pakistan (for 2010) to defeat al-Qaeda.
But then, US aid has been suspended at least seven times during the history of Pak-American friendship. The latest probably was the July 2011 suspension of the $800 million US military aid to Pakistan.
The United States has traditionally been seen as a lender of the last resort by nearly all Pakistani rulers after the death of Quaid-i-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah in September 1948.
These Pakistani rulers include the likes of Liaquat Ali Khan, Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy, Field Marshal Ayub Khan, Iskander Mirza, Yahya Khan, Zuklfikar Ali Bhutto, Zia-ul-Haq, Benazir Bhutto, Nawaz Sharif, General Musharraf, Asif Ali Zardari, late Farooq Leghari, Yousaf Raza Gilani, Shaukat Aziz and Zafarullah Khan Jamali.
During the last 25 years since 1989, the following Pakistani Premiers and Presidents have visted the United States:
Benazir Bhutto (June 5-7, 1989), Farooq Leghari (May 23-27, 1994), Benazir April 9-11, 1995, Nawaz Sharif (September 22, 1997, September 21, 1998, December 1, 1998 and July 4-5, 1999), General Pervez Musharraf (November 10, 2001, February 12-14, 2002, September 12, 2002, June 23-27, 2003 and September 24, 2003), Mir Zafarullah Jamali (September 30-October 4, 2003), General Musharraf again (September 21-22, 2004 and December 3-4, 2004), Shaukat Aziz (January 22-24, 2006), General Musharraf (September 20-22, 2006 and September 27, 2006), Premier Yousaf Raza Gilani (July 27-30, 2008), Asif Ali Zardari (September 23, 2008, September 24-25, 2009), Yousaf Raza Gilani again (April 11-13, 2010), Asif Ali Zardari (January 14, 2011 and May 21, 2012) and Nawaz Sharif (October 20-23, 2013).
History shows that in 1989, Benazir Bhutto had made a quick visit to the United States, asking President George Bush Senior to stop financing the Afghan Mujahideen.
But then, some key Afghan leaders had been frequent visitors to Islamabad during her father Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto’s tenure (before General Zia-ul-Haq) and even during her two stints in power.
The purpose behind those visits of Afghan leaders is debatable though. The October1, 2001 issue of the globally-subscribed “Newsweek,” while covering the decade-long hunt for Osama bin Laden, had shed some light on Benazir’s understanding of the issue. It writes: “In the late ‘80s, Pakistan’s then head of government, Benazir Bhutto, told the first President George Bush, “You are creating a Frankenstein.” But the warnings never quite filtered down to the cops and G-men on the streets of New York.”
The “Newsweek” had gone on to state: “The international jihad arrived in America on the rainy night of Nov. 5, 1990, when El Sayyid Nosair walked into a crowded ballroom at the New York Marriott on 49th Street and shot and killed Rabbi Meir Kahane.”
The magazine had maintained: “The plotters were quickly exposed as disciples of Sheik Omar Abdel-Rahman, the “Blind Sheik” who ranted against the infidels from a run-down mosque in Jersey City.
The Blind Sheik’s shady past should have been of great interest to the Feds—he had been linked to the plot to assassinate Egyptian President Anwar Sadat in 1981. But the Sheik had slipped into the United States with the protection of the CIA.”