The US Senate passed the Kerry-Lugar Bill, according to which the US shall provide $1.5 billion annual aid to Pakistan for development in sectors other than the military, which includes assistance in the democratic, economic and social development fields. The government is vigorously portraying it as a great success. But America is not doing it as a favour. It had to do it.
The US has been aiding Pakistan in terms of peanuts in return for Pakistan's matchless co-operation and sacrifices, whether it is by the US's entry in the political affairs of South Asia, by establishing relations with China, due to Pakistan's efforts, dismemberment of the former USSR through the Afghan war or eliminating the threat of al Qaeda from FATA and Afghanistan in the war against terror.
America provides aid to other countries, also as payment, to look after its interests in their regions. It has been aiding Afghanistan and India as well, but none of them has been projecting it the way we are doing it. Don't we feel that we, as a nation, are showing our out-of-proportion-happiness like a beggar on the traffic signal who smiles and celebrates on getting a few coins.
The US has put so many checks on its aid. For instance, the US wants to provide aid in kind, instead of money, has expressed having its own system of audit to measure the judicious use of the subject aid, still prefers to handover the aid money to the sponsored NGOs, instead of the government and lastly, instead of giving the aid as a whole to be invested in power or any other mega project, it is being allotted in instalments of meagre 1.5 billion dollars only.
This way the US has very cleverly put a check on Pakistan's sovereignty as well. If Pakistan tries to resist any US policy, with regard to US interests in the region, the next instalment will be in jeopardy on the same line as we faced in the case of F-16 fighter jets delivery.
Indirectly, the US has established control over Pakistan's sovereignty and our leaders won't be able to resist any US will, due to fear of aid stoppage. So lets not celebrate the subject aid package and instead, sit together, to find out the lost glory which the Quaid-e-Azam envisioned for Pakistan.
Let's become the self respecting iconic "Shaheen" of Allama Iqbal, by taking revolutionary welfare reforms, getting out of the political meagre differences and act as one nation to be reckoned as a respectable, resourceful, egoistic and responsible nuclear power.
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