While Pakistan continues to suffer from an alarming absence of an efficiently functioning government, India’s lobbyists seem to be enjoying a free hand in Washington. There has been a popular dictum since long that the main challenge of all the countries of the world can’t but be finding an effective answer to the question: How to deal with the U.S power and influence ?
India’s foreign office and the lobbyists New Dehli has engaged, seem to be doing a great job in this respect. Most Congressional guns are now blazing in the direction of Islamabad.
A U.S Congressional panel has demanded cutting off all U.S assistance to Pakistan to persuade Islamabad to act against the Afghan Taliban groups allegedly using its territory to launch operations into Afghanistan. Quite clearly those Congressmen who are making such ‘out-of-proportion’ and highly unfriendly demands are utterly unaware of the fact that Pakistan happens to be ‘the’ country that has been worst hit by terrorism that has frequently been initiated from the safe havens that pro-India forces in Kabul have provided to various groups of terrorists engaged in cross-border activities, these pro-New Dehli Congressmen are going as far as to suggest that Pakistan be declared a state sponsoring terrorism and be subjected to all the harsh measures prescribed and reserved for such states.
All this is happening in an environment in which the main ‘concern’ of Pakistan’s Prime Minster is to hold onto power at any costs— even if the ‘cost’ involves bartering away the national interests to Washington and New Dehli.
Pakistan continues to have no foreign minister, and quite ironically this ‘job’ has been taken over (by default) by the Army Chief himself.
The question that arises in this environment is: How long can this country be allowed to be run by a dysfunctional government?
