By Samira Sadeque
Former Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf recently blasted President Obama for steering attention towards India instead of Pakistan, who is a “supposed” strategic partner that is currently suffering in many aspects. Musharraf also expressed bitterness over an apparent lack of U.S. support, saying that Pakistan is strictly convinced that the U.S will abandon them, just as it did in the past.
“It’s a strategic relationship of great importance, indeed, in words,” Musharraf said. “But, in action one would expect more to demonstrate this strategic importance that Pakistan is enjoying in that region.”
Musharraf referred to the twelve year era between 1989 and 2001 as “twelve years of disaster” saying Pakistan was “totally abandoned by the United States.”
According to Musharraf, this era was a low-point in U.S.-Pakistani relations that was compounded by nearly four million Afghan refugees. Musharraf added that Pakistanis felt they were “used and abandoned” by the United States. They felt “betrayed,” a feeling he said they harbor even today.
“It’s important today when we are trying to take a decision whether to stay or quit, are we again to be abandoned? A question in the mind of every pakistani,” he said, adding that Pakistanis are seeking for assurance from him that the United States will not again “use and abandon” the nation that has been caught within a web of war, political instability and, of late, natural disaster.