Foreign policy

It is a wonderful time to revisit our US policies. Although I am not an expert when it comes to foreign policies, I vividly remember two important speeches made by Pakistan over a span of a few decades, both mentioning that the pivot of Pakistan foreign policy will be its relationship to the US. Now, it is easy to say that we will eat grass, but will not accept handouts from anyone. However, what is difficult is to revisit our past and make it loud and clear that whatever we had done in the past was wrong. Why we sided with the US and Saudi Arabia to fight Russia and Afghanistan in Afghanistan? Why don’t we consider that an infringement into the internal affairs of our worthy neighbour? Why did we allow the US to use Badaber Air Base to fly Avacs planes against Russia? Why couldn’t we accept that the US is an unreliable ally and a fake friend?

We brought Kalashnikov and heroin to Pakistan. We helped promote a culture of religious intolerance. We armed our madressahs and we let our industry disintegrate. Did we do all of this to please our American masters? Who benefitted from the Afghan war? Who suffered the fallout? We need to look at the motives of those who sided with the US. We need to denounce those policies. We need to make amends and announce our mistakes with all possible seriousness. Only then we can turn around and lay the foundations for a progressive Pakistan. Otherwise, we are just covering our mistakes and misguiding our nation one more time.

Irfan U Khattak

Abbottabad