Mr Obama did gain a few points in a popularity survey soon after he stabbed Pakistan in the back by an un-announced raid on 2 May. But mainly due to his failing economy, rising un-employment and huge deficit due to war in Afghanistan, he is again down in the latest survey. One of the US writers has even said that he is likely to lose the elections.
Obama is more dependent on Pakistan now than ever before. He has recently threatened to cut aid to Pakistan. It is the status quo in Pakistan that is favouring the USA. A factor which favours the US is our instability which is due to our poor economic situation. It is being exploited by them.
The only solution is to become independent of the US aid. No aid, no exploitation. As very rightly pointed out by Imran Khan and Shaukat Tareen, we have to increase our tax base, tax the land owners owning than 100 acres.
They are enjoying all the facilities without contributing to the revenue. Secondly, as reported, Pakistanis have more than 200 billion USD in foreign bank accounts. If starting from the top, we all bring back one third of our foreign deposits (70 billion) we can easily get a quick fix to our woes. But, this is just not possible. We love our dollars more than our country.
RASHID MAQSOOD
Lahore
