It’s Bakra Eid and your neighbor sends you some meat from their goat which they have just slaughtered. You open the door and take the bloody tray. But then you send it right back saying that you didn’t like the cut which was sent over and that the tray was also not acceptable, and the neighbors should have put a better cloth to cover the meat. If you think this is bizarre then think again. This is exactly the discourse (if you can call it that) which is happening all over Pakistan today. If you think it’s ridiculous then think again because this is the stuff of late night television where political “analysts” are saying exactly this. If you think its rude then this is the stuff which Opposition politicians are using to hammer the Government from all sides without mentioning that they loved Uncle Sam’s dollars when they were in power. Welcome to the Bakra Mandi where “analysis” occurs without even reading the content of this Bill which is supposed to “erode” Pakistan’s sovereignty.
Let’s put some facts down first. The Kerry-Lugar Bill is a piece of legislation which has been introduced in Congress so that elected members of the United States legislature can debate it, make amendments if necessary, and then pass it onto the President of the United States for his signature so that it can become actual legislation. President Obama’s strategy for Pakistan is to engage with the people of Pakistan and ensure that money meant for Pakistanis is actually spent on them, and the infrastructure they need. This is a break from previous US Governments who have engaged with the Pakistani military and Establishment rather than the 180 million people of Pakistan. “Analysts” and critics are weighing in on the Bill without even having read the text of it. One of the criticisms of the KL Bill is that it erodes the sovereignty of the Pakistani State. How? The Bill stipulates that Pakistani State needs to fight the Taliban and not give them sanctuary. The brave Pakistani Armed Forces are already doing this and civilian leadership; both in Government and the Opposition (with the exception of Nawaz Sharif) have openly condemned the Taliban and their vision for Pakistan. The KL Bill states that the Pakistani military will be the guardians of the borders and guard the people of Pakistan from internal and external threats. Again this is something which is part of the Pakistani Constitution and a clause meant to ensure that democratic governments are not derailed by military adventurers as has been the case in the past. All political parties are more or less in agreement on this clause, and even the military has recently publically stated that it has no intentions of getting involved in civilian affairs. The KL Bill states that we Pakistanis will never again allow the proliferation of nuclear weapons as we did under our very own Dr. A.Q. Khan aka Dr. Strangelove. I think all Pakistanis agree that selling State nuclear secrets for personal gain is not a good thing and there is no dispute on this account either – ghairatmand Pakistanis agree that theft, lying, and scamming is not so ghairatmand at all.
The Bill also has a clause which states that Pakistan will not harbor, train, or otherwise let terrorist groups use its territory to launch attacks in or out of the country. The Pakistani State has denied this allegation and has taken action against the identified camps with huge losses in terms of military and civilian personnel in order for this cleansing to happen. Infact the Pakistani people, State, and the Establishment all agree that terrorist training facilities on its soil is not a good idea. We have lost more civilians in suicide attacks and military operations than any other country has to date; and the whole “strategic depth” argument has lost the public opinion it might have once had. So there’s nothing really wrong with this one either. So where exactly is the problem? Why are there headlines like “Mystery of Kerry-Lugar Solved?” appearing in the national press? When debating the Kerry-Lugar Bill why are our anchors, analysts, and politicians not willing to talk about the facts rather than invoke jingoistic conspiracy theories? This is not a piece of Pakistani legislation; rather an American legislation which allows for a package to help Pakistani people who have been under-served by successive Governments. If you don’t like it, don’t accept it. No one is forcing the money on you. If you don’t like the fact that the money will not be spent through the Government (where it is not unheard that corruption occurs!), then don’t take the cash. The first and foremost duty of any Government is to ensure that the people of the country are taken care off. If the country does not have the money to provide basic services for its people and someone is willing to give you that cash then it is almost suicidal not to take it.
The nay-sayers fall into distinct categories. The Opposition are particularly amusing. The PML-N leader Nawaz Sharif flew to Washington after Kargil to get Bill Clinton to intervene. We all know how that ended up for him. The Sharifs still take diktat from the Saudi king who brokered the “deal” on their behalf. The Jamaat was fine with US money, material, and training being imparted to the Mujahideen when they were fighting the Soviets and when their spiritual father General Zia-ul-Haq was propped up by US Aid, but now all of a sudden they have moral qualms about US Aid. The PML-Q are the most opportunistic of the lot after having lived off US Aid for almost a decade which was given to their spiritual father, General Pervaiz Musharraf. This was a time when Pakistani sovereignty was seriously violated with US bases and personnel were based on Pakistani soil. If someone is to be blamed by the Establishment for confirming American fears about aid to Pakistan, then it should be Pervaiz Musharraf for admitting to misusing US funds to Pakistan while he was President (or CEO as he liked to call himself). The Establishment doesn’t like the fact that they can’t directly play with the 1.5 billion dollars which is being committed. The Army doesn’t like several clauses in the KL Bill. The Opposition doesn’t like the fact that they aren’t part of the party which is going to come in; while the Government doesn’t like the fact that they wont be able to use the funds to finance their joyrides and fancy Range Rovers with green plates on them. In all of this no one has bothered to ask the average Pakistani whether he/she would like to see schools and hospitals built, access to clean drinking water, and better food security for themselves and future generations no matter where the money is coming with. The conditionalities make no direct impact on their lives but the funds actually can. If all these stakeholders were to be honest to the jobs that they have taken an oath to execute then they would realize that the only ones they are screwing with their skewered objections is the people that they claim to serve.
