Word: pakistan
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Fast Facts: • Born in Afghanistan. Moved to Pakistan at age 7 before emigrating to the United States in 1999. Lives in Aurora, Colo...
...Congress is also working through a bill that would deliver an unprecedented $1.5 billion a year of nonmilitary aid. The money will help support Pakistan's deeply neglected education and social sectors. (At the moment, the country only spends 2.5% of its GDP on health and education combined.) Pakistan also faces chronic electricity shortages. On his last visit, Richard Holbrooke, the Obama Administration's envoy to the region, pledged support. But that effort, along with proposals for a gas pipeline from Iran and Chinese-funded nuclear-energy reactors, will not bear fruit for some time...
Patience will also be needed in any attempt to boost civilian control over Pakistan's all-powerful military. Although on paper Zardari is the "supreme commander of the armed forces" and the powerful Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency reports to Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, these are what one senior Western diplomat describes as "constitutional fictions." Under General Ashfaq Kayani, the army has resisted intervening directly in politics, but has repeatedly asserted its clout through backstage maneuvers...
...attempt to bring the ISI firmly under civilian control swiftly backfired last year, while army pressure earlier this year was behind the sacking of the national security adviser and crucial to the reinstatement of the deposed Chief Justice of Pakistan's Supreme Court. More troubling for Washington is that Zardari's approval ratings have plummeted over the past year, to just 32%, according to the most charitable poll, matching President Pervez Musharraf's levels in his final months. "The general view is that the government is not batting for the country," says Aasiya Riaz, a political analyst...
...such circumstances, the army is scarcely likely to cede what it has traditionally seen as its prerogatives, namely, directing foreign and defense policy. Already moves by Zardari to draw closer to Kabul and New Delhi have encountered resistance. For the Pakistan Army, India remains the principal enemy. That view is likely to remain unshaken as long as it perceives threats from the eastern border and Indian influence in Afghanistan...