ISLAMABAD, June 4: As Washington fumed over the jailing of a Pakistani doctor who helped the CIA hunt down Osama bin Laden, an educated Islamabad businesswoman voiced her own outrage – at the United States.
“All we ever got from the Americans is instability and violence,” she said, echoing what many Pakistanis believe is Washington’s contribution to their country and region over three decades.
“Didn’t you know Osama bin Laden was a CIA agent?”, she asked at a dinner attended by Western diplomats, referring to his role in US-backed resistance to the Soviet occupation in Afghanistan in the 1980s.
“Then he was on the same side as Washington.”
In Pakistan, public opinion increasingly views the United States as a fickle, selfish ally despite the billions of dollars in aid that flow to the cash-strapped South Asian nation.
It is a view that has only deepened since US troops killed bin Laden on Pakistani soil in May 2011. The raid, kept secret from Pakistani authorities, was a humiliation for the powerful military and raised searching questions about whether it was harbouring militants.
Relations have soured further after a court last week imprisoned for 33 years the Pakistani doctor who helped the CIA find the al Qaeda chief and mastermind of the 9/11 attacks.
“Most people in Washington are upset with Pakistan. Dr (Shakil) Afridi goes to jail, this guy should be a hero, instead you (Pakistan) are treating him like a crook,” said one U.S. Official.
(AGENCIES)
Trending Now
E-Paper
Follow our WhatsApp channel