The latest round of tension between the United States and Pakistan with the threat of scaling down of Washington’s military assistance to the south Asian country must be seen in Pakistan as a precious new opportunity to make a fresh start.
Indeed, the latest indications from Washington suggest a continuing division among US politicians over withholding or allowing up to $800 million in planned military assistance for Pakistan.
This follows a recent decision by the Obama’s administration to scale down the military aid to Pakistan, to punish Islamabad for some of its recent steps such as ordering up to 120 US military trainers to leave the country and a refusal to grant visas to a number of US government personnel.
Irrespective of how the standoff finally ends, there are important lessons which must be learnt from this episode. To begin with, no country must rely indefinitely on foreign aid being the main source of its revenue. Such dependence will always come at the expense of subsequently compromising the best national interests.
In Pakistan’s case, a long term reliance on foreign economic and military aid has essentially meant that the country’s ability to reform itself has immensely suffered. It should hardly be surprising that in spite of years of growing malaise surrounding the country’s economy, Pakistan continues to fail in its repeatedly stated promise to begin fixing its tax collection system.
This follows a long-term trend where Pakistan has been a repeated beneficiary of US assistance. The relationship between the two countries has hovered between periods of close alliance versus eras of mutual hostility. In the 1980s, the US and Pakistan became close allies in their campaign to oust the former Soviet Union’s troops from Afghanistan by aiding the ‘mujahideen’ resistance in the central Asian country. In the 1980s, the relationship quickly fell apart when the US sanctioned Pakistan for making strides to become a nuclear power. The close proximity however re-emerged after the September 11 attacks when Pakistan turned its back on its Taliban allies and chose to support the US-led campaign against terror.
For some, the relationship which is beginning to falter now, fits into an established pattern, where proximity during one decade is followed by hostility in another. While there may be no established and firm evidence to back this claim, a historical pattern certainly supports this claim.
Going forward, there are a number of reasons for Pakistan to become more self reliant through long-awaited reforms, as a way to enter a more mature phase in this relationship. Rather than rely on Washington’s largesse to keep itself afloat, Pakistan must exploit every opportunity at home to make itself more viable.
INTERNAL REFORMS
For instance, across Pakistan, just about one per cent of the country’s population pays income tax, while the country’s tax to GDP ratio of around 9 per cent makes it one of the world’s worst performers when measured in this way.
Improving such parameters will make Pakistan more self-sufficient, though that does not mean that there has to be a confrontation course with the US. Instead, without confronting the US, Pakistan has to overcome its deficiencies more for its own benefit. Boosting its revenue collection will be an important step for Pakistan to set the pace for internal reforms waiting to take place. A large part of the instability which engulfs Pakistan today is clearly the result of years of neglect of important areas, notably health care and education.
But a credible set of internal reforms which begin to fix such fundamentally vital areas of human welfare, will inevitably bring about the kind of stability that has evaded Pakistan for long. It is even possible that such reforms leading to an overall improvement of Pakistan’s outlook will indeed result in a renewed self-confidence of the kind that has not been seen in Pakistan in recent memory.
While Pakistan must reform itself, there are also lessons for the United States to be adopted at a time when many see the two countries set on a collision course. For Washington, punishing Pakistan may serve to quash some of the anger that prevails in the US capital today towards the south Asian country. But such punitive steps on their own will not change the fundamental reality of Pakistan’s pivotal importance as a key US ally for the stabilisation of the Afghanistan-Pakistan region. –Gulf News
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