This Article is From Mar 03, 2011

Clinton: US-Pak relation is complicated and frustrating

Clinton: US-Pak relation is complicated and frustrating
Washington: US' relationship with Pakistan is complicated and often "frustrating", Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said as she slammed the political establishment there for being dominated by "powerful interests."

"This (US-Pak) is a complicated and often frustrating relationship," Clinton said in her testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee as she appreciated the constant attention and helpful interventions from its Chairman Senator John Kerry in this regard.

"We are working to deepen that partnership and keep it focused on addressing Pakistan's political and economic challenges, as well as our shared threats," Clinton said.

Responding to a question from Senator Richard Lugar, Clinton said the Pakistani politics is dominated by the rich. "Economically and politically, it's a much more complex story. They have made some decisions that we support and that Kerry-Lugar-Berman was intended to encourage, but they've also run into a lot of political difficulties because this is a political system that is dominated by the rich."

Lashing out at Pakistan's political establishment, she said "They don't want to pay a penny in taxes, if that sounds familiar. They want to keep their big landed estates, don't want anybody asking them to support education, support health, to support anything for their people. And as a result, those powerful interests dominate the politics of Pakistan." Clinton said as a result of this attitude US has been working with those organisations that it believes are on the right track for reform. "We've been working with NGOs, both Pakistani-American and international, that we think can support those kinds of changes."

"The floods came along and just upended everything because they were so devastating and they cost so much money. But I would say that on balance, despite how challenging the relationship is and how much internal pressure their government faces every day, we're in a better position than we were two years in actually confronting the real problems. We're not papering over them. We're not pretending that they can somehow be ignored," Clinton said.

Meanwhile, White House spokesman Jay Carney said the US continues to work with Pakistan to deal with terrorism in the region.

"We continue to work with the Pakistani government to deal with the issue of terrorism and insurgents," he told reporters.

However, Senators were concerned over the fact that Pakistan is not doing enough on the war against terrorism.

"I'm not criticizing you (Clinton). I'm just saying it is hugely disheartening to see what we're doing in Afghanistan taking place, knowing that the centre of all of it is really in Pakistan, and there's no real effort to deal with it on their part," said Bob Corker said.

Senator Christopher Coons, who was recently in the Af-Pak region, said the progress in Afghanistan was matched with a lack of real sustained progress in Pakistan.

"I had some real concerns about their either unwillingness or disinclination to go after extremists and to essentially close this deal and give us a sustainable opportunity for success," Coons said. "What are we doing as a nation to ensure that the very extremists who slipped through our fingers in Afghanistan and crossed over to Pakistan are not already able to find promising second fronts to move to in Yemen, in Somalia and in other states? There were disturbing developments even today in Yemen," he asked.
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