Happy New Year from PAL-C! 12/30/2009
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This is your new blog post. Click here and start typing, or drag in elements from the top bar. Op-Ed: Reconstructing the U.S.-Pakistan Partnership “I’ve never had so much difficulty in trying to give away 7.5 billion dollars.” So remarked Senator Kerry, in Pakistan last week in an effort to persuade Pakistan’s political leadership to accept the “Enhanced Partnership with Pakistan Act of 2009” commonly referred to as the Kerry-Lugar-Berman bill. The bill, recently signed into law by President Obama, triples U.S. economic assistance to Pakistan for a period of 5 years and was intended to stabilize the U.S.-Pakistan partnership by reassuring Pakistani policymakers that the U.S. is serious about making a long-term commitment to Pakistani people that will outlast our immediate short-term security need for their cooperation in rooting out al Qaeda and allied militant organizations. Critically, however, the bill placed conditional language on security assistance to Pakistan, including a requirement that the Pakistani military and intelligence agency “cease support” for extremist and terrorist groups, language that was perceived by those institutions and many others in Pakistan, as a “legislative indictment” that such support was currently being given and must be stopped. Pakistan’s major opposition party capitalizing on a public statement by the Pakistani Army that registered “serious concern regarding clauses impacting on national security” and broad anti-American sentiment, focused the country’s - and crucially the Pakistani media’s – attention on the intrusive conditions and accused the governing party of “selling out” the country’s sovereignty for “peanuts,” with some in the opposition going so far as to redub the bill the “Kerry-Looter bill.” Because of this, what should have been a hero’s welcome for Senator Kerry when he flew in to Islamabad last week, turned into a diplomatic trial by fire. But the U.S has two immediate opportunities to reverse the harm created by the inclusion of those conditions and regain our diplomatic footing. The first of these opportunities is to immediately pass legislation introduced by Senator Maria Cantwell and Congressman Chris Van Hollen that would provide fair market access for non-trade sensitive Pakistani and Afghan exports into the U.S. The legislation, entitled the “Reconstruction Opportunity Zone (ROZ)” legislation would create much-needed jobs in Afghanistan and conflict-affected areas of Pakistan, providing potential Taliban and militant recruits with a sustainable alternative income through which they can feed their families. Ironically, the ROZ legislation was incorporated and passed in the House of Representative’s initial version of the Kerry-Lugar bill but was not included in the final bill. We now have a chance to recoup that missed opportunity by passing the ROZ legislation as a way of healing the rift that the conditional language in the Kerry-Lugar bill caused. There is a risk however, that if we allow the ROZ legislation to become ensnarled in the politicized struggle between U.S. labor and business and the final version is burdened with an impractically high labor standard that Pakistan can realistically never meet, it will eviscerate the purpose of the bill in the same way that the conditions of the Kerry-Lugar bill destroyed the goodwill intended by it. The stakes are too high, and our experience too recent and painful to make that mistake twice. The second immediate opportunity the U.S. has to improve our standing vis-à-vis our relationship with Pakistan is to provide emergency relief to the new refugee exodus emanating out of the Pakistani military operations in South Waziristan. The U.S. must be at the forefront of those providing assistance to the new Waziri refugees, now estimated at 150,000 individuals with that number expected to increase to 250,000. At the same time, we must continue to maintain the highest levels of assistance for the refugees from the operations in Swat and Bajaur, even as they return and begin rebuilding their homes and lives. Today, many schools throughout Pakistan remain closed for fear of suicide bombings and further attacks. This is only the most recent example of the overwhelming price the Pakistani people have paid for their partnership with the U.S. in the fight against extremism. Let’s not let them down by insulting their security forces, who are fighting our common fight, with further conditions on U.S. security assistance of the type recently introduced by Senators Menendez and Corker which requires that security assistance reimbursements “not adversely impact the balance of power in the region.'' That condition will almost certainly be interpreted by Pakistanis as the U.S. kowtowing to Indian pressure and will once again undermine our efforts to build a strategic partnership with them. We’ve been down this road before and it ends nowhere good. Let us instead remember that while we in the U.S. debate an increased troop presence in Afghanistan, on the other side of the Afghan border Pakistani troops are already paying the ultimate price in South Waziristan. Taha Gaya is the Executive Director of the Pakistani American Leadership Center (PAL-C) he can be reached at taha@pal-c.org. Ramadan Greetings from PAL-C! 08/22/2009
 WASHINGTON D.C., August 21, 2009 - The Pakistani American Leadership Center (PAL-C) would like to extend our Ramadan Greetings to all of you. We hope and pray that this month, and every month, is one of mercy, forgiveness, hope, safety, peace and blessings. And now a word from the President of the United States, Barack Hussein Obama: | PAL-CRepresenting the Pakistani American community to the U.S. Government since 2004. ArchivesDecember 2009 Categories | ||||
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