By: Asem Mustafa Awan
The cat is finally out of the bag and Pakistan has been asked to reconsider its ties with China as the two countries have joined hands to march towards new horizons.
Prime Minister Imran Khan in interaction with the media recently has sent a clear message to the world that there will be no compromise on Pakistan’s sovereignty and Pakistan will not submit to foreign pressure. There have been many suggestions that Pakistan should jump boats and either join the US and European camp ditching China or reconsider her option in establishing the relations.
The PM’s resolve that Pakistan will not leave China should clear all misconceptions. The history since the inception of Pakistan has many tales in which US interests were held prime and Pakistan suffered.
The first and foremost being right after the creation of Pakistan the welcome note from the United States followed by the US wheat as Pakistan faced food shortage at that time came with a price. The foreign office has this message in its archives.
The cold war era with United States and Soviet Union trying to establish their supremacy to the world had Pakistan getting a warning from Soviets. The ‘wheat aid’ was followed by the US request of air base in Pakistan namely Peshawar where US spy plane U2 carried out missions in Soviet Union. The severity of the threat from Soviets was elimination of the area (Peshawar Budaber) to which Pakistan mend its approach and made US stop its operations.
The US interest in the region has many dimensions the ‘containment of China’ namely one followed by strategic as well as an economic alliance with India is viewed in a different perspective globally.
The seventies era has American turning their backs on Pakistan and India was successful in dividing Pakistan and the part of which is now known as Bangladesh.
The 80’s saw the Russian invasion in Afghanistan and after a decade owing to US and Pakistan alliance Soviet Union was shattered to pieces. The war could not have been won without Pakistan’s assistance as its very own existence was threatened but US after defeating the Soviets in Afghanistan trumpeted home victory and left the country. The result and backlash was borne by Pakistan in the form of millions of refugees bringing in arms and drugs.
This is not all the 9/11 incident in New York in 2000 made America attacking Afghanistan and after two decades the US designs as planned in the region are still far-fetched.
Pakistan at that time provided support to United States as her existence was threatened and the decisions under duress and coercion had their price. Pakistan brought the US war in its own home and paid the price with over 100,000 martyrs which include nearly 70000 troops.
Prime Minister Imran Khan has made it clear that there will be no compromise on Pakistan’s sovereignty and Pakistan will not be a part of any nefarious designs that need commendation from all quarters.
The writer is special correspondent at ‘The Dayspring’. He can be reached at [email protected]