Daily Times

Sir: I have been reading many articles about Pakistan and India trying to get into the Nuclear Suppliers Group despite the fact that they do not qualify in the least for it.

Why do people in South Asia think that they are above the law? And why are countries such as the US allowing us to behave the way we do. US has in the past incorrectly empowered Pakistan with money and weapons, and now it is doing the same with India by giving it concessions that it does not deserve and has not earned.

India promised that it would not use nuclear energy for weapons — but it lied. Pakistan said that it was using money given to it by the US to fight terrorist — and it lied too.

The real question is whether this country is really this stupid or if it’s so fixated on its short term goals and it doesn’t see what its politics and policies will do the to the region it is dealing with.

In reality, this arms race between Pakistan and India is ridiculous. Neither of the two countries can actually use the weapons against the other, we’re neighbours for crying out loud! But we continue to amass weapons of mass destruction to show the other who’s boss.

But no one is boss. Both the countries are so focused on be coming a part of the NSG and neither cares to look at the position of their education and health sectors. People are dying every single day, but we want more bombs. Children grow up without real futures, but more bombs are our future.

And all this time, instead of talking to each other, India and Pakistan play puppet to the US, which doesn’t seem to really care what its policies does either. Now we have China on the fore, and it wants to turn the region into the next Europe. But it wants to do so for its own benefit, not because it has warm feelings in its heart for any country.

It’s high time India and Pakistan realised the need to grow up. All these countries come to us with their idiotic policies and ruin our lives. All we do in return is find ways to blame each other even more. We have to stop being evil, and start listening. We have to stop being violent, and start understanding.

Before, it was the War on Terror, and now it is the War against Economic Degradation — the world is moving on from its own problems, and the subcontinent needs to do the same.

HALEEM HUSSAIN

Okara

Published in Daily Times, July 8^th 2018.