by Tausif Kamal

When the Chinese Premier, Mr. Wen Jianbao, raised the crescendo of the inveterate meme of China-Pakistan friendship to new heights by declaring in our Parliament that the “deep rooted” friendship was a result of the “vision and far sightedness of their ( China and Pakistan’s) leaders and love of the people”, many people shook their heads in disbelief.

In the case of China, it might be legitimately said that their leaders have indeed displayed these qualities in governing their country but the thought of Pakistani leaders possessing vision and far sightedness and acting out of nothing but “love of the people'” strains credibility. Mr Jinabao must be joking.

The ” vision” thing was pretty much dead as soon as our country was established. As far as our leaders’ “love of the people” is concerned, our people pray to the Almighty to be spared the wrath of such overwhelming “love” that has broken their backs! Even seeking strong relationship with China ( translate: seeking Chinese money and arms) by our rulers was motivated not by any vision or for love of the people but primarily for their self-serving, narrow interests : to bolster their sagging regimes.

This is not to find fault with the Chinese leadership whose actions and rhetoric are animated by their patriotic duty to promote the national and security interests of their country; whatever they do and say should be viewed in this context. Basically the problem lies with us, into believing the rhetoric to be actually true and taking it for granted when the facts prove it to be otherwise.

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