• A US client regime In Islamabad accepts insignificant Indian aid on US prodding
• No respect for Kashmiri blood & no thought to Indian terrorism In Balochistan

By SHIREEN M. MAZARI
Sunday, 22 August 2010.
The Nation
WWW.PAKNATIONALISTS.COM

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan—The Government of Pakistan has truly shown its subservience to the United States on whose orders it chose to accept the puny amount of $5 million Indian aid for the flood relief. This money has the blood of Kashmiris on it and one wonders how our Kashmiri brethren must be feeling as they face the bullets of Indian forces every day and see us taking Indian “aid”.

Some would say that we also took Indian assistance in the 2005 Kashmir earthquake but that was different in that the Indian aid was in kind and basically the two sides of Kashmir were opened up on humanitarian grounds. Later, it transpired that most of the Indian material aid, specifically targeted for Azad Kashmir, was tarnished. But even at that time we had refused to accept India’s offer of helicopters for relief work – an offer which also had the conditionality that Indian crews would come with these copters.

But to accept money from India at a time when the Kashmiri youth have risen afresh against the Indian occupation and are being killed on a daily basis, and at a time when India is targeting Pakistan on false charges again on a regular basis, is a shame for the entire nation. Even as PML-N leader Nawaz Sharif was declaring that Pakistan did not need Western assistance, the US ordered the Pakistani leadership to meekly accept the Indian aid offer. In fact, barely had Senator Kerry departed that the Pakistanis accepted US diktat yet again. Kerry also compelled the government to target Pakistani religious charities doing a remarkable job of relief work.

Here is a country, India, with whom we have fought wars; a country that was instrumental in breaking up Pakistan; a country that continues to deny the Kashmiris their right of self-determination; and the moment the US commands, we accept a meagre amount of aid from this same India. How can anyone take our position on Kashmir seriously when we are prepared to forget the people of Kashmir at the mere offer of a blood-soaked $5 million Indian loan? Certainly this reflects our total abandonment of the Kashmiri people in their hour of dire need and moral support.

What can you expect though from a government which allows its President to break all protocol and stand next to a mere Senator from the US for a press conference? This is our shame today – we have effectively become a vassal state of the US.

This column was published by TheNation. Reach Dr. Mazari at

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