WASHINGTON The United States needs to support Pakistan to fight terrorismand preserve its fledgling democracy as Washington needs Pakistan’s supportto enfledgeling the sacrifices rendered by the American people achieve thegoal of peace and prosperity that extends to the United States.
A report in the online news magazine, *International Policy Digest*,referred to the devastating terrorist attacks that targeted politicalrallies, a government convoy and an election office during the Pakistanelections and claimed by the Islamic State terrorist group.
“To say that Pakistan is not at the front lines of the fight againstviolent extremism is patently absurd. But this is the position of some inWashington who would deny Pakistan the tools it needs, in terms of militaryhardware, financial support, and political encouragement, to bringterrorists to heel,” says the author of the report, who recently visitedthe Pakistan embassy and met Ambassador Ali Siddiqui.
“With former cricket great Imran Khan claiming victory in Pakistan’s seconddemocratic transition in Pakistan’s 71-year history, Pakistan is set on anew trajectory with a new prime minister promising changes in a countrythat has been marred by corruption and violence.”
The report said that it is both sad and counterproductive for the US tocut-off billions in aid to Pakistan, which is critical to the success ofthe US’ own fight against terrorism.
Ambassador Siddiqui told the magazine that the future of Pakistan waslinked to quelling the threat of terrorism and in meetings with USofficials, he would underline the grave problems that Pakistan is facing inthe fight against terrorism and its seriousness to wipe out this menace,which is also a threat to global peace.
The magazine quoted Ambassador Siddiqui as saying that improving theUS-Pakistan security relations was his number one priority as Ambassador.
Ambassador Siddiqui said that terrorism was posing threat to Pakistan’sability to grow economically and thrive democratically.
The report said that the US itself has a deep interest in helping Pakistanfight the menace of terrorism and extremism as the country shares a longborder with Afghanistan where American troops are fighting terrorists for17 years, and where terrorists who attack Americans and other innocentsabroad had taken refuge.
“The U.S. has lost more than 2,000 lives and spent billions of dollars inAfghanistan, and we need Pakistan’s access, influence, and firepower todestroy terrorist havens and bring the Taliban to heel,” the report added.
The report highlighted that since 9/11, the US-Pakistan collaborationplayed a critical role in dismantling al-Qaeda and led to arrest andkilling of many terrorists. The cooperation between the two countries alsoresulted in seizure of more than 200 tons of IED explosives, which hasclaimed the heavies toll on international forces in Afghanistan.
But, Pakistan had to pay a heavy price for achieving these successes andmore than 60,000 of its people were killed in terrorist attacks and thecountry’s economy suffered accumulative losses of $120 billion.
“So it is both sad and counterproductive for the U.S. to cut off more thana billion dollars in aid and hundreds of millions of dollars inreimbursements to Pakistan under the Coalition Support Fund (CSF), a USprogramme for costs incurred in supporting counter-terrorist operations.”
Referring to President Trump’s statements against Pakistan and thesubsequent snapping of all security aid, the report said that Pakistanipeople must feel “abandoned, their sacrifices in vain”.
“The problem is that we need the Pakistani people. We need them to defendtheir fledgling democracy and reject the appeals of extremists. We needPakistanis to participate in anti-terrorism community partnerships whichare critical in a fight against non-state actors capable of hiding in thewide open,”he said.