“Working directly against the US, Pakistan continues to support the Haqqani network and has not ceased its decades-long policy of supporting various militant groups as part of its foreign policy.”
Pakistan is a long-time ally of the US, but they certainly have a very troubling record when trying to determine just how they are fulfilling that role.
Since the creation of Pakistan in 1947, the US has supported the country and its various administrations with over $67 billion in aid. These levels have ebbed and flowed depending on the US administration in office as well as the pertinent situation of the time.
In 2009, to signal the United States’ renewed commitment to Pakistan, the US Congress approved the Enhanced Partnership for Pakistan Act (commonly known as the Kerry-Lugar-Berman bill, or KLB). The KLB’s intention was to put security and development on two separate tracks, insulating the development agenda from unpredictable geopolitical and military events and facilitating longer-term planning for development. The act authorized a tripling of US economic and development-related assistance to Pakistan, or $7.5 billion over five years (FY2010 to FY2014), to improve Pakistan’s governance, support its economic growth, and invest in its people.
In terms of population, Pakistan is the second largest Muslim country. It is the only Muslim declared nuclear power. Pakistan has exported their nuclear weapon technology to other countries, most notably Iran, North Korea, and Libya.
As a side note, according to Gaddafi’s former foreign minister, Abdel Rahman Shalgham, the event that ultimately caused Gaddafi to give up his WMDs and nuclear weapons program was a reported 2001 message from US President George W. Bush, who told Gaddafi that “either you get rid of your weapons of mass destruction or the United States will personally destroy them and destroy everything with no discussion.” In March 2003, days before the invasion of Iraq, Gaddafi’s personal envoys contacted US President Bush about their willingness to dismantle the nuclear program.
Then we have the bin Laden affair. Make no mistake—Osama Bin Laden was living in Pakistan just a few miles away from the Pakistani equivalent of our United States Military Academy at West Point. He had been there for years with his family.
Working directly against the US, Pakistan continues to support the Haqqani network and has not ceased its decades-long policy of supporting various militant groups as part of its foreign policy. The National Security Archive at George Washington University recently published a cache of unclassified documents that claim that “a large majority of the Haqqani Network (HQN) funding comes from the Quetta, Pakistan-based Taliban leadership.”
The Abuses Inside Pakistan are Rampant
On January 28, 2017, a Pakistani court acquitted 106 Muslims of burning down an entire Christian village in 2013 including 150 homes and three churches. The attack came after one of its inhabitants, Sawan Masih, was accused of blasphemy. More than 80 prosecution witnesses, 63 of them with statements recorded about the attack, said they did not recognize any of the 106 accused. So they were all released.
Also on January 28, 2017, the government arrested an elderly Christian man on the charge of blasphemy, which carries a maximum death penalty. A mosque leader accused Mukhtar Masih, 70, of writing two letters containing derogatory remarks about the Koran and Muhammad. The report cites a source who said that “the charges against Masih were fabricated by local Muslims seeking to seize his property.”
Police raided the elderly man’s home the same day and took his entire family into custody. His family was released, but he was booked on charges of blasphemy and beaten to force him to admit to it.
The Pakistani government denied that “Christian minorities are being targeted by the country’s controversial blasphemy laws.” Despite the well-known fact that religious minorities—chief among them Christians—are the demographic most prone to being accused and convicted of blasphemy, to say nothing of being beaten, lynched, and burned alive in mob attacks. Christians in recent years have become the number one target of blasphemy allegations.
Recap:
- Pakistan is home to one of the largest Muslim populations in the world.
- Pakistan is a nuclear state with few qualms about exporting technology to our enemies.
- Pakistan supports or turns a blind eye to terror groups we are fighting in Afghanistan.
- Pakistan harbored Osama bin Laden for years just miles from a premier military academy.
- Sharia law is strongly enforced, as is the persecution of the Christian population.
So, tell me again. Why is Pakistan an ally? Why is the United States sending billions to them every year? Am I missing something here?
