Under the headline of ‘New US Policy to Raise Aid for Pakistan’ (DAWN News, Friday 30 Oct) is the biggest and most worrying shift in US policy towards Pakistan. The outline for this new policy was made very clear by Senator John Kerry when he declared that “Pakistan is not only the headquarters of Al Qaeda today but could eventually become the epicentre of extremism in the world.”  He went on to say that there was ‘virtually no Al-Qaeda’ in Afghanistan. He repeated the same old mantra that Pakistani intelligence agencies have used Taliban as a ‘hedge’ in the past and that there are concerns that they will continue to do so in the future.  After all the denials by the American Ambassador in Pakistan in the aftermath of the KL Bill, that Pakistan’s ISI was not being accused of funding extremists and terrorists, this ‘policy shift’ is indeed a very strange development. Keeping in view the reports from the US media claiming that the Obama administration is now convinced that no amount of troop surge in Afghanistan can eliminate Taliban as a political and military force, a clear pattern is emerging in terms of the real intentions of the US towards Pakistan and perhaps the real reason why the Afghan war was launched in the first place.

However, what is indeed stranger is the attitude of Pakistan’s mainstream media as they hardly seem to be able to have a grip on reality. Even while the media was in an uproar over the Kerry-Lugar bill, it seems bizarre that the debate that raged on in media circles was still primarily concerned with the question of whether or not the US is a friend of Pakistan. One cannot help but notice that during the recent visit to Pakistan by US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Pakistani mainstream media again adopted the attitude of a an anxious child , expostulating with the honourable guest about the ‘arrogant’ behaviour of the US administration.

The ‘tough love’ response of Mrs Clinton to this was something along the lines of  ‘ well I am sorry you feel that way but it wasn’t our intention, you don’t have to take the money you know, if you don’t want to’. What exactly is going on here? Why isn’t anyone telling madam secretary that your country is killing innocent Pakistanis, killing babies rather, as she was so keen on pointing out in her address to university students in Lahore. Why didn’t any of our esteemed journalists ask her why the US is busy killing and bombing Pakistanis if we are such great friends and allies? Why wasn’t it politely suggested to her that she perhaps should not have come to Pakistan as she wasn’t very welcome here. Why don’t we see a revolt in the Pakistani media against the freak show that was Clinton’s visit to Pakistan? Why didn’t the big shot media anchors boycott the interview with Hillary Clinton while more than a 100 Pakistanis were being blown up in Peshawar and hundreds more were fighting for their lives? If Mr. Zardari and his government are not human enough to feel any empathy for his fellow Pakistanis who suffered terribly in this outrageous attack, where was the Pakistani media, why didn’t they refuse to cover her visit due to a national tragedy?  If they are such torchbearers of truth, then how dare they sat in their suits and ties and conducted an interview that amounted to nothing in terms of expressing the real sentiments of the majority of the Pakistani public? American Govt. has taken off its gloves and is now openly hostile to the Pakistani state and people, so why in God’s name are we still walking on eggshells.

Is the mainstream media in Pakistan unable to think or act independently or have they deliberately blind-folded themselves? This is our question to all those who attended the press-conference that was organised by this shameful government of Pakistan.

 Source:  PKKH