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US interfering in Pakistani affairs: editorial

By IANS

Islamabad : If there is a fine line between showing interest in the politics of a friendly country and “meddling” in the internal affairs of a sovereign state, the US is “treading more precariously” today than it has in the recent past on Pakistan’s future, a newspaper editorial Monday maintained.

“To categorise the statements emanating from Washington as being invasive would not be anything short of justifiable,” said The News, one of Pakistan’s leading English dailies.

“While maintaining friendly ties with the US is an important issue, a line needs to be drawn between being affable and being downright pusillanimous,” it added.

At issue was US Assistant Secretary of State Richard Boucher’s statement last week that Pakistan’s religious parties would not get the same support in the upcoming general elections as they did five years ago. In normal course, this statement “would seem to be mere political speculation”.

“However, in the case of the US, a country whose foreign policy is known, historically, to be meddlesome and manipulative, especially in the case of Pakistan, nothing can ever be viewed as simple or innocent speculation,” the editorial maintained.

“These gratuitous statements come in the backdrop of the now well-documented fact, which was also confirmed by Boucher at the same event, that the US has played a big role in the ‘reconciliation’ between (former prime minister) Benazir Bhutto and President Pervez Musharraf,” it added.

According to the newspaper, there were reports that Musharraf was being pressurised to come to an understanding with Bhutto because she was perceived “as a derisible commodity due to her seeming liberal, pro-west stance, which makes it easier for Washington to push its agenda not only in Islamabad but in the entire region”.

Noting that a moderate government in Pakistan was welcome, the editorial contended that “to state beforehand, based on no credible evidence, that religious parties will not get the same sort of support, is irresponsible, especially considering the current political turmoil in which the incumbent government’s legitimacy is fast diminishing.

“Such ‘speculative’ statements will only provide more fuel to right-wing religious elements to substantiate the general perception in the country that the mandate for the next leader is being decided in Washington and not being sought from the 160 million people that make up Pakistan,” the editorial maintained.