Pakistan: Tilted foreign policy edifice

When the first prime minister of Pakistan, Khan Liaquat Ali Khan, paid his maiden state visit to the United States in May 1950 violating the state agenda of a tour of the former Soviet Union, an edifice of Pakistan’s foreign policy was raised on an uneven foundation. No subsequent efforts were made to change its contour in accordance with the objective conditions in the region and even in the serving of the greater national interest. It later transpired that the United States embassy in Tehran maneuvered the visit of the “First World” US instead of the “Second World” Soviet Union and the later never forgot the slur that ultimately caused the dismemberment of Pakistan in 1971, about two decades of the first wrong step that was followed by Pakistan becoming a member of Cento and SEATO to make the Second World more jittery. It was not until the late Zulfikar Ali Bhutto who, the same year, divorced the two pro-America blocs to mould the opinion in Moscow that the defunct Soviet Union came to Pakistan’s help in building a huge steel mills at Karachi and later removed the disequilibrium in relations with Islamabad. The late Bhutto was also the architect of friendship with China that proved to be an all-weather bond between the two countries that is based on sincerity of the objective and mutual understanding still surviving to raise the relation to new heights touching the sky. Learning no lessons from the past follies, the Foreign Office, whose bureaucracy is brought up with a particular pro-West mindset, on Thursday committed itself that working with the new Obama administration would not be difficult because the two sides understood each other’s position on drone attacks, the bone of contention, and talks were in progress to reach a mutually agreed view. The Foreign Office conveniently forgot that “mutual understanding” is possible only between tow equals and where the situation of the lone superpower and a Third World country is confronted, such notions hardly exist albeit diplomatic jargon. Pakistan is under the obligation of its own national interest to come in closer contact with the countries and regions that are prepared to work on mutual respect and equality, a goal which cannot be achieved when a boss like state of the US is on the other end. The Foreign Office’s assertion also by-passed the new thrust of the Pakistan People’s Party-led government of raising anew the external policy around the East instead of looking towards the West. The first country President Asif Ali Zardari paid a state visit after assuming the office was China where he has been for eight more times ever since. Besides, Islamabad is trying hard to raise the status of its representation to the China-sponsored Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO), from an associate member to a full member like Central Asian Republics and an assurance to this status exists. Time has come for Pakistan’s bureaucrats to understand what the country’s larger interest commands. This does not, however, mean that Islamabad should altogether ignore other regions and countries. We have, of course, to take along the entire world with us but must also show to the international community that we have no alignments and are a non-aligned state in strict diplomatic terms. ECO is certainly a forum Pakistan should be interested more in than depending on states that take Islamabad for granted. This forum has a great future as the representative of one-sixth of humanity. ECO’s secretariat and cultural department are located in Tehran, its economic bureau is in Turkey and its scientific bureau is situated in Pakistan. Its charter encompasses among others economic development of member states, promoting trade, integration of the economies of member states with the world economy, mobilization and utilization of region’s material resources and cooperation for drug abuse control, ecological and environmental protection and strengthening of historical and cultural ties among the peoples of the region. Thus ECO seems to be the only political and economic bloc with which the future holds a big promise. Even on domestic front, an overwhelming majority of the people detest America and the same number of population has a special fondness for China with which Pakistan’s future is guaranteed. Let’s bring a paradigm shift in the foreign policy with a meaningful twist not sitting high on mere illusion.