Need for a resounding, people-centric Pak-US tie-up

Express Tribune

28-03-2025

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It is always a pleasure to come back to the United States, which is my second home, and a pride to return to Pakistan. I have been a visitor for the last two decades, since my first official State Department-sponsored IV trip in 2003 as a mid-career journalist.
Despite my siblings and mother being American citizens, I neither made it a point to immigrate to laurels of the lone superpower nor was tempted with its silver-linings. Despite being a critic of the state of affairs back home — desperately in need of reforms, supremacy of law and pluralism — I was content in making a profound space for myself in all humility.
This time around as I mulled a trip to the US, there was an ambience of fear, mistrust and a ruthless media campaign. A news-leak said that citizens from Pakistan too are in the line of fire, and the new administration of President Donald Trump is considering a travel ban. It also said that Pakistan has been placed in the 'orange' list of countries whose citizens will be stringently vetted at the airport for their bona-fides, and subject to prerogative admission at the mercy of immigration authorities to the Land of Liberty.
But that was not the case, as I once again found myself, along with my better half, welcome to the dreamland, and it was a smooth walkover. So was the case with fellow citizens queued up at the airport. Perhaps, genuineness pays and all those Pakistanis, or citizens from any other shade, who believe in fair play have little to worry.
My air-dashing luckily also coincided with a firm declaration from the State Department spokesperson, Tammy Bruce, that "there is no such list", and a procedural review of visa issuance to several countries, infected with terrorism and bad governance, is in the pipeline. This should put the matter to rest, and harness a sentiment of goodwill and cordiality.
As far as relations with the US are concerned, Pakistan has stood with the tide of time and been an allied-ally of Washington. Being a nation with a youth bulge, Pakistanis look up to the US in awe and are eager to cement broad-based people-centric ties in the realms of higher education, technology transfer, trade and commerce, as well as to learn from the success stories of big-ticket ventures of immigrants in global leadership.
At the state-level, likewise, there is a genuine desire for a beefed-up counter-terrorism cooperation and buoyed military understanding to ward off security imbalance in the region, to ensure that terrorism is defeated and profound geo-economics flourishes. In doing so, Pakistan should not be seen as a competitor in realpolitik, but rather treated as a country in pursuit of peace and congeniality. The US support in these endeavours is indispensable, and there is no need to jump the gun by secluding Pakistan from the prism of otherness.
Pakistanis, at the same time, value American principles of egalitarianism, rule of law, constitutional triumph and democracy. They too want to see public representation take root and democracy respected, rather than being thrown up for a toss for the sake of strategic exigencies. Erecting an assured civil supremacy mosaic could foment new vistas of genuine cooperation, and that's what is required at this point of time after fallacies of pick and choose in the extra-legal and undiplomatic domains.
Pakistanis, in an era of social media and free flow of information, can neither be silenced nor taken for a ride. They are quite conscious of their civil and political rights, and want to see them realised. Thus, rather than pulling on with the existing decorum of mistrust, it would be advisable to take a break and usher in a new lease of confidence in people's aspirations in bilateralism.
Unflinching support for public representation and a suspicious free trade and travel modus operandi is the way to go. Americans cannot afford to lose a resilient and enterprising nation of 245 million for the sake of construed strategic maneuvering. Likewise, Pakistanis see in American liberalism a better and resounding tomorrow.