The traditional faith and confidence that existed in US-Pakistan relations for decades have evaporated recently mainly due to Islamabad’s closing of relations with the People’s Republic of China and to some extent with the Kremlin, as both are not on good terms with the USA. In this context, it is also to be made clear that while Pakistan needed the USA always from the day of its inception, the USA’s requirement of Pakistan is with gaps-long and short, in the Cold War and post-Cold War phases. It however, has been necessitated in the last two decades due to the launch of war against the terror groups, the Al-Qaeda, in particular, where US considerations mostly revolve around its regional and global politics.
In this period Pakistan has been benefited much from the US, but only in the name of eradicating or combating terrorism in the region and in Kabul where US security forces along with the armies of NATO countries had been fighting in Afghanistan from October 2001. However, over the years, the need and requirements of Pakistan have multiplied on account of various factors and it wants from the USA a relationship beyond traditional perceptions and practices, or more a relationship of equality like with India, with whom the USA has developed and maintained a strategic partnership for the last two decades.
In the recent past, Islamabad has focused its relationship with the USA more on economic issues and as among other things, Beijing has provided them to Pakistan, and it has leaned towards Beijing, but also keeping in mind its stiff enmity with India, who is Pakistan’s enemy by birth. Anyway, the number one motto of Pakistan’s present foreign policy is to be aloof from the crossfire politics between the USA and China, the two big powers of today’s global politics.
On being disappointed from India’s refusal to join the US camp in the era of Cold War which began in 1945 after the end of World War II, the USA established diplomatic relations with Pakistan, the first Muslim country with immense geostrategic value in South and Central Asia as well as Eastern Europe. In the entire period of the Cold War Pakistan remained a faithful and dependable ally of the USA in world politics when the later was in deep rivalry and intense competition with the USSR across the globe. Keeping in view Islamabad’s enmity from birth with New Delhi and the declared war between the two from the beginning, the USA had provided billions of dollars annually in the form of aid, military equipment and grants which were used by Pakistan in purchasing US goods, food, and other services. In this context, it is also to be mentioned here that the USA, a country of most successful democracy co-existed with military dictators from the time of Ayub Khan to Pervez Musharraf very comfortably, as the dictators of the time had convinced the US authorities that the military power of the nation was fully competent to rule over the country;
As a result, over the long years of military regime the rulers had been able to strengthen their position in other administrative networks including the nexus with its intelligence agencies like the ISI, In coming days because it became very strong and influential even to control the democratic/elected governments as and when they assumed power through voting. Perhaps, the most fatal side effects of the military, rigid discriminatory rules of Ayub Khan and Yahya Khan resulted in the division of the country in December 1971. It is said that if Pakistan had been a democratic country like India since Partition, the chances of this event were low.
