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| Turning Pakistan into a client state |
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Quantum note
Friday, October 02, 2009
Dr Muzaffar Iqbal
With the passage of the "Enhanced Partnership with Pakistan Act of 2009" in the US Congress on Wednesday, September 30, 2009, Pakistan has formally entered the status of a client state. The term client state, understood in its broad meaning, is synonymous with terms such as "satellite state", "puppet state", "neo-colony", and "vassal state". In the post-WWII era, this term was used for states ruled by dictators and supported by either the United States or the Soviet Union. During the Cold War era, these states included Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua up until 1979, Cuba up until 1959, and Chile under the regime of General Pinochet, South Vietnam, and Iran up until 1979. In its contemporary usage, a client state does not have to be a state ruled by a dictator, more often than not, it is a proxy democracy which is economically dependent on a more powerful nation. This economic dependence has now been formalized in the "Enhanced Partnership with Pakistan Act of 2009", which will be signed by President Obama in the near future. Once signed by him and formally accepted by the government of Pakistan, the government of the United States of America will "earn the right to monitor" Pakistan in a variety of ways under Sec 302 of the Act.
There will be a number of contradictory claims and counterclaims in Pakistan during the days and weeks to come about the specifics of the act, the amount Pakistan will receive, and other little details, but it is the main feature of this act that needs to be discussed, not its offshoots. The main feature is the simple fact that Pakistan has formally surrendered a big chuck of its sovereignty to another government. This means that it is no more the people of Pakistan who will be deciding what their children will study in schools, what projects their government initiates in social sectors, what kind of policies their government should have regarding the Taliban and the Al Qaeda, but another government, through the willing cooperation of a client government in Islamabad.
The act binds Pakistan to America in realms of its national existence in a manner and to the extent that has never existed before. It is no more the people of Pakistan, but a few politicians and their chosen "experts" who would make policies for Pakistani nation for domestic as well as foreign affairs. It is the US Senate that has determined that "security-related assistance to the government of Pakistan should be geared primarily toward bolstering the counterinsurgency capabilities of the government to effectively defeat the Taliban-backed insurgency and deny popular support to Al Qaeda and other foreign terrorist organizations that are based in Pakistan."
Furthermore, there are general as well as specific provisions related to how funds will be used under this assistance. The details to which these conditions apply are simply equivalent to loss of all freedom as the word is understood in international politics. For instance, it is the government of the United States that has now earned the right to dictate to its client government in Pakistan that funds it is providing must be used for (i) "the implementation of legal and political reforms in the FATA;" (ii) "economic freedom", and (iii) "investments in people, especially women and children"; (iv) vocational training for women and access to microfinance for small business establishment and income generation for women". The Bill envisions the creation of an American University in Pakistan, on the pattern of similar universities in the Middle East (see Senator Kerry's companion report on the bill)! So, welcome to the long list of American clients.
Reminiscent of the Government of India Act of 1858, the "Enhanced Partnership with Pakistan Act of 2009" gives the government of the United States the moral, economic, and political role of civilizing the natives of Pakistan by determining the kind of education, social assistance, military and civil programs this country should have. Instead of the viceroy, it is the Secretary of State who will be submitting periodic reports to the US President on progress made on this mission. Section 5(b)(1)(A) of the bill requires that "none of the amounts appropriated may be made available after the date of the enactment of this Act for assistance to Pakistan unless the Pakistan Assistance Strategy Report has been submitted to the appropriate congressional committees in accordance with subsection (j)."
In general, the so-called assistance to be provided to Pakistan under this act, relates to the following broad categories: "(A) Civil liberties; (B) Political rights; (C) Voice and accountability; (D) Government effectiveness; (E) Rule of law; (F) Control of corruption;(G) Immunization rates; (H) Public expenditure on health; (I) Girls' primary education completion rate; (J) Public expenditure on primary education; (K) Natural resource management; (L) Business start-up; (M) Land rights and access; (N) Trade policy; (O) Regulatory quality; (P) Inflation control and (Q) Fiscal policy." Taken together, this leaves hardly anything outside American control and influence.
Pakistani people now stand at real cross-road. If they take the road set by this Act, they can look forward to handing over their children to the Americans in the years to come, to make them what they want to make in their own image. This road to Washington will clearly turn the qibla of this nation and within one generation, all that has accumulated in the spiritual and intellectual realms through a millennium of slow and organic growth of a civilization, will be Americanized.
The writer is a freelance columnist. Email: quantumnotes@gmail.com
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ISSN 1563-9479 
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