how much of a influence are these guys?
Islamists slam Pakistan’s non-NATO ally status
18/03/2004 at 14:11:53
Date line: ISLAMABAD
Islamist opposition here slammed a US plan to grant Pakistan “major non-NATO ally” status for its role in the war against terror, saying Thursday it would make the country a “client state.”
“I will be very unhappy if Pakistan is inching towards this alliance with the US,” Khurshid Ahmad, vice president of the main fundamentalist Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) party, told AFP.
“This is neither an honour, nor a step towards global security. We have to avoid becoming a mercenary and a client state,” Ahmad said.
US Secretary of State Colin Powell announced at a news conference in Islamabad Thursday that President George W. Bush would soon designate Pakistan a “major non-NATO ally” as a reward for its anti-terror support.
The announcement came as Pakistani troops unleashed their second major assault this week on Al-Qaeda and Taliban fighters near the border with Afghanistan.
The designation means Pakistan will join an exclusive club of nations — including Argentina, Australia, Bahrain, Egypt, Israel, Japan, Kuwait, New Zealand, South Korea, Thailand and the Philippines, which are given preferential treatment in the areas of foreign aid and defense cooperation.
“I don’t think this as a reward, it is a new trap after, luckily, we withdrew ourselves from the previous US alliances during the Cold War era,” Ahmad said.
Hasnat Qadri, spokesman for the moderate Jamiat Ulema Pakistan (JUP), a key member of six-party Islamist grouping, said the new role will be “dangerous for Pakistan’s military.”
“By entering into such alliance, Pakistani soldiers will be made US mercenaries,” Qadri said. “Muslims will be used against Muslim countries by the US.”
But ruling party Senator and political analyst Mushahid Hussain said the new status would increase the level of satisfaction in Pakistan amid concerns over growing defence cooperation between its rival India and Israel.
“Pakistan is a valued ally for the US and the new status signifies that there is a strong long-term strategic relationship between the two countries.”
Powell unveiled the decision despite US concerns over a nuclear proliferation scandal involving father of Pakistan’s nuclear programme, Abdul Qadeer Khan.
Hussain said that US concerns over nuclear proliferation in Pakistan would not affect the new relationship.
Defence analyst Talat Masood also said the move raised Pakistan’s status as an ally of the United States.
Pakistan has been chosen for this new role “because there is convergence of national and military interests as the two countries are now partners in the war against terrorism,” Masood, a retired Pakistani army general, told AFP.
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