The true faces

Going by his remarks he made while talking to the media at the State Guest House at Lahore on Sunday, Prime Minister Gilani seemed to recognise the true faces of India and the USA, but created a sense of puzzlement why his government does not act on those beliefs. He said that the USA was an important country, and Pakistan wanted to have good relations with it “on the basis of mutual respect and interest”. His admission that talks were underway to grant Most Favoured Nation (MFN) status to India must be related to this. It is because the USA has decided to back India in its regional desires of hegemony in exchange for its becoming its regional counterweight against China, that it has fallen in with Indian desires about Pakistan, and wishes it to become a mere adjunct of India’s, with the grant of MFN status something which India has long desired. It cannot be ruled out that Islamabad’s anxiety to get such a deal, to please the USA more than India, will lead it to ignore the multitude of non-tariff barriers India has put up.
This alone should prove to Mr Gilani the incompatibility of interests between Pakistan and the USA. For Pakistan, giving MFN status would mean the destruction of its industry, the impoverishment of its people and a frittering away of a useful bargaining point in its struggle to make India accept its commitments to the Kashmiri people and the international community. For the USA, it would merely be another favour done to India by bringing pressure to bear upon a ruling elite anxious to please it.
This leaves one inescapable conclusion, that Pakistan is not merely helped by its American alliance, it now finds that its vital interests are threatened. Therefore, Mr Gilani should take the action which his logic makes inevitable, and that is the ending of the American alliance, as well as Pakistani participation in the USA’s war on terror. As Mr Gilani said, Pakistan’s location made it an inevitable part of the war, but he did not explain why Pakistan must take sides with the Crusaders.