Untitled - orsam

Writing in The News daily, public policy consultant Mosharraf Zaidi said the only lesson
to draw from Obama’s visit was “the deals being made”.
“While we drown in the inanities of this country’s infinite and perpetual search for
identity, we are deepening our current bankruptcy, and ensuring a future of mostly
begging for handouts.”
With Obama visiting Indonesia, APEC in Japan and the G20 in South Korea, Zaidi said:
“The reason he is not visiting Pakistan is obvious. Pakistan does not belong on that list of
countries and that is not India’s fault.”
Analysts say Islamabad should soften its foreign policy, dominated by the anti-Indian
military, to avoid isolation as the United States looks to end the war against the Afghan
Taliban.
“In today’s world, defeat can be described in one way only: international
isolation…Pakistan must learn to be more objective about the crisis it is facing
internally,” wrote The Express Tribune in an editorial.
“Pakistan can sort out this crisis through self-correction.”
But there was also gratitude; unlike British Prime Minister David Cameron — who
sparked a diplomatic crisis when he accused Pakistan of exporting terror while in India —
Obama refused to be drawn into fresh criticism of Islamabad.
He urged India and Pakistan to resolve their differences and called on Islamabad to do
more against militants, but acknowledged the country was making progress against what
he called the “cancer” of extremism.
Askari said in what was a nod to the US realisation that the country is indispensable to
forging peace in Afghanistan, Obama did not sideline Pakistan.
Sayfa 69