PAF F-16 Fighter
WASHINGTON: Failed to get American mediation on Kashmir, failed to get US acknowledgement on charges of Indian interference in Pakistan, failed to get any major business deals or investments, but scored eight F-16s. That about summed up Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's trip to Washington so far as he arrived at the White House to meet President Obama on Thursday morning for what later appeared at best to be a cordial meeting.
The White House was a little more hospitable to Sharif's wife Kulsoom Begum, with First Lady Michelle Obama hosting her and their daughter Maryam, and the announcement of a $70 million programme for girl child education in Pakistan that was far more meaningful. But so obsessive and joyful is the Pakistani military about American armaments that it has elevated the 40-year old jet fighter (which India rejected) to a mythical status, leading the New York Times, which first reported the deal, to note that it was an "overture intended to bolster a tenuous partnership despite persistent concerns about Islamabad's ties to elements of the Taliban and quickly expanding nuclear arsenal."
The F-16 sale still has to be vetted by Congress, where there is much opposition to Pakistan because of its dodgy record on terrorism and nuclear proliferation. Ahead of the Obama-Sharif meeting, some lawmakers wrote the President asking him to not even consider a civilian nuclear deal with Islamabad given its track record, even as Pakistan tried to draw Washington into its fracas with India — without success.
With analysts having concluded that Sharif was the lame-duck leader (although it is Obama going into his final year), there was little of substance from the White House meeting. Not even Sharif 's act of taking a leaf out of India's playbook by giving Obama photographs of the time his mother Ann Durham spent in Pakistan as an aid worker (in the same way India plied Oba ma with Martin Luther King and Mahatma Gandhi mementoes), brought any warmth into the tepid affair. The brief opening statements from the two heads of government were conspicuously lacking in warmth or depth.
Obama said the two sides had a "long standing relationship" and he was looking forward to further deepen the relationship, and Sharif said it is his endeavor to further strengthen and solidify this relationship. There was no excursion to the Martin Luther King Memorial, no expansive business meetings, and no wildly cheering Pakistani diaspora for the beleaguered Punjabi leader, described by the Economist today as the "diminished leader of a disgraced ally."