The National Interest
Thanksgiving 2001

The Pakistani Pivot

by Dennis Kux

 

Only partly in jest, Pakistanis say that their country is ruled by the three A’s: Allah, the Army and America. Among the English-speaking elite—senior military officers, civil servants, rural landlords (the so-called feudals) and the business community—the American connection runs strong. They may bemoan U.S. policy, but they send their children to the United States for education and seek political, security and business links with America. Many in the elite have relatives in the 400,000 strong Pakistani-American community. Pervez Musharraf’s own brother is an American citizen, a doctor in Chicago.

The average non-English speaking Pakistani tends to hold stronger anti-American views, reflecting the harder line of the Urdu-language press. The man in the street in Karachi, Lahore, Islamabad, and especially in Peshawar and Quetta, sees the United States as not just anti-Pakistani (and of late pro-Indian) but as genuinely anti-Islamic. This opinion echoes widespread, long-standing anger over U.S. policy toward Israel and the Palestinians and, more recently, over policies such as the continued bombing and sanctioning of Iraq. The virulent criticism of America by the Taliban and bin Laden has resonated well in Pakistan.