Pakistani Anger Toward America

The packaging of non-military financial aid from the United States provokes nationalist outcry in Pakistan.

Islamabad has entered into an unhealthy torpor: Could it be the calm before the storm? The Pakistani capital is a besieged city waiting for the next attack, the last of which was committed on Monday by a suicide bomber, killed five employees of the World Food Program.

It has been a while now since the heavy, purple bunches of bougainvilleas were able to hide the concrete blocks which still spoil this charmless metropolis. Security is obligatory; it is everywhere: in the middle of large avenues which lead to the power center; double, even triple rows of anti-blast walls in front of the embassies and the foreign residences most targeted by terrorists – American first and foremost. Markets are deserted and surrounded by security forces. “People are scared and, what’s more, they have no money. The economy is on its knees, which does not help anything,” says Farrukh Saleem, leading economist at the Center of Research and Security Studies.

Conspiracy Theory

In this atmosphere, it’s easy to begin a witch hunt against the Americans. Isn’t it the United States that has driven Pakistan to such a point, dragging the country into their war against terrorism? While they are losing Afghanistan, are they are seeking to make Islamabad their scapegoat by attributing blame for the defeat? This would explain why the Americans are trying to get their hands on the country…

“Anti-Americanism among Pakistanis is a strange phenomenon, which partly derives from anti-imperialism and anti-colonialism,” analyzes Tanvir Ahmad Khan, director general of the Institute of Strategic Studies in Islamabad. “Everyone is convinced that the United States is prepared to do anything to get hold of the natural resources of the country.” He adds, “almost all segments of the population see the Americans as a destabilization factor. It’s a very difficult sentiment to fight.”

And since Pakistanis are always quick to come up with a conspiracy theory, it is of course under the influence of Israel and India that Washington acts in this way. “The war in Iraq did not help matters either. Religious people, who see America as a deeply anti-Muslim country, have had no difficulty in making their voices heard in the media, particularly on television,” states Tanvir Ahmad Khan.

According to a survey published last week by the International Republican Institute (IRI), an independent American survey institute, television is the main source of information for 78 percent of Pakistanis, while for 9 percent it is the radio and only 7 percent read newspapers. “For some time now, certain elements of the ISI (the Pakistani secret services) and the army have been leading a media campaign against the United States. Religious groups have taken over,” indicates a Western observer, emphasizing that they are omnipresent on television panels.

As a result, the Kerry-Lugar aid bill (named after the two senators who devised the plan, John Kerry and Richard Lugar), which has just been approved at the Congress in Washington, continues to come up against an unexpected barrage. The non-military aid package for Pakistan amounts to 7.5 billion dollars over five years, but the conditions are strict. The Pakistani army must prove that it no longer supports the jihad groups that threaten India from Pakistan. The Americans also want access to anyone suspected of being involved in nuclear proliferation. The name A.Q. Khan, the “father” of the Pakistani atomic bomb, is not mentioned, but it seems “all this basically makes certain people think that this is an attack on Pakistan’s sovereignty,” says Tanvir Ahmad Khan.

The construction of an American super-embassy in Islamabad had already strengthened the Pakistani conviction that the United States is doing all it can to colonize the country; they do not believe this “expansion” is necessary to distribute the aid.

Rumors are gaining momentum, including the most absurd, some going as far as claiming that Washington wants to build a Guantanamo-style prison in Islamabad. Recent declarations made by Ann Paterson, the American ambassador in Pakistan, stating that Mullah Omar and his choura (traditional council) are in Quetta, Baloutchistan, have added fuel to the fire. It has to be said that she has quite tactlessly implied that the Americans would not rule out bombing in order to clear out the Taliban “government in exile.”

For the economist Farrukh Saleem, the political packaging that the Pakistanis are giving to the American aid is not usual. “The Kerry-Lugar bill is the symptom of an illness known as a huge budgetary deficit. It is because of this huge deficit that we are losing our sovereignty. Pakistan is a beggar country,” he concludes.