Relations with the United States drew close when they formed a military alliance during the Cold War. Pakistan’s non-Communist, pro-West orientation was embraced by American officials who were struggling to develop better relations with India, which at the time was aligned with the Soviet Union. During the 1980s, the Reagan administration greatly expanded military sales to Pakistan and ignored warning signs of the country’s plan to develop nuclear weapons. Once the Cold War ended, Washington was less inclined to help build up Pakistan’s military. But with the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, Pakistan once again became a vital US partner in the region. Situated next door to Afghanistan, home of the Taliban and al-Qaeda, Pakistan became a key priority of the Bush administration’s war on terrorism and its efforts to hunt down militants. However, as much as Pakistan’s military ruler, Musharraf, publicly expressed his desire to work with the US, elements within the Pakistani government—specifically, the intelligence agency—maintained close relations with Islamic militants and undermined American operations to capture key figures like Osama bin Laden. With the downfall of Musharraf in 2007, Pakistan’s new civilian government began to distance itself from the US. Relations only grew cooler as American military commandoes based in Afghanistan conducted raids inside Pakistan without first informing leaders in Islamabad. In the wake of the Mumbai terrorist attacks in November 2008 (which may have had links to Pakistan) and the election of Barack Obama to the White House, it remains to be seen what kind of relationship the US and Pakistan will develop in 2009.

Population: 167.8 million

Religions: Sunni Muslim 80.0%, Shi'a Muslim 15.9%, Christian 2.5%, Hindu 1.3%, Ethnoreligious 0.15, Baha'i 0.1%, Buddhist 0.1%, non-religious 0.1%.

Ethnic Groups: Punjabi 44.1%, Pashtun 15.4%, Sindhi 14.1%, Sariaki 10.5%, Urdu 7.6%, Balochi 3.6%, other 4.7%.

Languages: Western Punjabi 38.1%, Pashto (Central, Northern, Southern) 11.8%, Sindhi (official) 11.6%, Seraiki 8.7%, Urdu (official) 6.7%, Balochi (Western, Southern, Eastern) 3.6%, Hindko (Northern, Southern) 1.6%, Brahui 1.3%, Eastern Farsi 0.6%, Bagri 0.1%, English (official). There are 72 living languages in Pakistan.

Pakistan’s early history was marked by the Indus Valley civilization, from 2500–1700 BC. The Aryans, Persians, Greeks, Arabs, Turks, and others swept through the area in succeeding centuries, until Islam was introduced in 711 and became the dominant religion. In 1526, Pakistan became part of the Mogul Empire, which ruled most of the Indian subcontinent from the 16th to the mid-18th century.

 

By 1857, the British established their colony in India, which included Pakistan. At the time, Hindus held most of the economic, social, and political advantages, creating dissatisfaction among the Muslim minority. The nationalist Muslim League came into existence in 1906, led by Mohammed Ali Jinnah. The league supported Britain in the Second World War while the Hindu nationalist leaders, Nehru and Gandhi, did not. In return for the league's support of Britain, in August 1947, Britain agreed to the formation of Pakistan (divided into East and West Pakistan, with India separating the two halves) as a separate dominion within the British Commonwealth, with Jinnah as governor-general. The partition of Pakistan and India along religious lines resulted in the largest migration in human history, with 17 million people fleeing across the borders in both directions to escape the accompanying sectarian violence. This period was marked by the first of several wars between India and Pakistan.

 

Pakistan became a republic on March 23, 1956, with Major General Iskander Mirza as the first president. Military rule prevailed for the next two decades. In April 1965, the second war with India began when fighting broke out in a sparsely inhabited region along the West Pakistan–India border. Fighting spread to Kashmir and to the Punjab, and in September, Pakistani and Indian troops crossed the partition line between the two countries and launched air assaults on each other’s cities. The two countries eventually agreed to a UN-sponsored cease-fire and withdrew their forces.

 

Meanwhile, tensions developed between East and West Pakistan. Separated by more than a thousand miles, the two regions shared few cultural and social traditions other than Islam. To the growing resentment of East Pakistan, West Pakistan monopolized the country’s political and economic power.

 

In 1970, East Pakistan’s Awami League, led by the Bengali leader Sheik Mujibur Rahman, secured a majority of the seats in the national assembly. President Yahya Khan postponed the opening of the national assembly to delay East Pakistan’s demand for greater autonomy, thus provoking civil war. The independent state of Bangladesh, or Bengali nation, was proclaimed on March 26, 1971. Indian troops entered the war in its last weeks, fighting on the side of Bangladesh. This conflict marked the third war between India and Pakistan. Pakistan was defeated on December 16, 1971, and President Yahya Khan stepped down. Zulfikar Ali Bhutto took over Pakistan and accepted Bangladesh as an independent entity.

 

Pakistan’s first elections under civilian rule took place in March 1977, though the victory of Bhutto’s Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) was marred by accusations of fraud. In July, the military stepped in once again and took control of the government, this time with General Mohammed Zia ul-Haq in charge. Bhutto was tried and convicted for the murder of a political opponent, and despite worldwide protests, he was executed on April 4, 1979, prompting riots by his supporters. Zia declared himself president on September 16, 1978, and ruled by martial law for the next seven years.

 

Zia’s reign ended in August 1988 when his plane blew up in midair. Elections at the end of 1988 brought Benazir Bhutto, daughter of Zulfikar Bhutto, into office as prime minister, making her the first woman to lead the country. Her time in office lasted only two years and was disrupted by political in-fighting with opposition groups. Bhutto assumed the post of prime minister again in the 1990s, while another political figure—Nawaz Sharif—held the post three different times. Despite the turmoil with its leadership, Pakistan proceeded with its clandestine nuclear weapons program, which experts in the West suspected was in operation since the 1970s. Pakistan conducted its first nuclear test in May 1998, confirming the worst fears of security experts and many others in India, which had tested its first nuclear weapon in 1974. India followed Pakistan’s 1998 test with its own test In a show of force that rattled the region.

 

To make matters worst, in 1999, civilian rule ended once again in Pakistan when General Pervez Musharraf led a coup that toppled the government. Fighting with India broke out again in the disputed territory of Kashmir in May 1999.

 

The Pakistani government maintained close relations with Afghanistan’s Taliban government until the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in the United States. Under US pressure, Pakistan broke with its neighbor to become the United States’ chief ally in the region. In return, President Bush ended sanctions (instituted after Pakistan’s 1998 nuclear test), rescheduled its debt, and helped to bolster the legitimacy of Pervez Musharraf’s rule, who appointed himself president in 2001.

 

In December 2001, suicide bombers attacked the Indian parliament, killing 14 people. Indian officials blamed the attack on Islamic militants supported by Pakistan. Both sides assembled hundreds of thousands of troops along their common border, bringing the two nuclear powers to the brink of war.

 

In 2002, Musharraf’s presidency was extended another five years in elections that opposition groups blasted as fraudulent. He then imposed almost 30 new constitutional amendments that strengthened his power.

 

In March 2003, Pakistani officials arrested Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, the top aide to Osama bin Laden, who organized the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Later that year, Pakistan and India declared the first formal cease-fire in Kashmir in 14 years. In April 2005, a bus service began between the two capitals of Kashmir—Srinagar on the Indian side and Pakistan’s Muzaffarabad—uniting families that had been separated by the Line of Control since 1947.

 

Abdul Qadeer Khan, the father of Pakistan’s nuclear bomb, was exposed in February 2004 for having sold nuclear secrets to North Korea, Iran, and Libya. Musharraf had him apologize publicly, and then pardoned him. Khan claimed that he acted alone and not in conjunction with Pakistan’s military or government, much to the doubts of those in India and the West.

 

Pakistan launched major efforts to combat al-Qaeda and Taliban militants, deploying 80,000 troops to its remote and mountainous border with Afghanistan. Yet the country remained a breeding ground for Islamic militancy and Pakistan’s intelligence agency continued to support Islamic militants.

 

In September 2006, President Musharraf signed a controversial peace agreement with seven militant groups who call themselves the “Pakistan Taliban.” Pakistan’s army agreed to withdraw from the area and allow the Taliban to govern themselves, as long as they promised no incursions into Afghanistan or against Pakistani troops. In July 2007, that agreement came under fire in the US with the release of a National Intelligence Estimate that said the deal had allowed al-Qaeda to flourish.

 

An earthquake with a magnitude of 7.6 struck Pakistani-controlled Kashmir on October 8, 2005. More than 81,000 people were killed and 3 million left homeless. About half of the region’s capital city, Muzaffarabad, was destroyed.

 

In March 2007, President Musharraf suspended Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, accusing him of abuse of power and nepotism. Supporters of Chaudhry took the streets in protest, claiming the move was politically motivated. Thirty-nine people were killed in Karachi when dueling rallies turned violent between those in support of Chaudhry and those supporting the government. Chaudhry had agreed to hear cases involving disappearances of people believed to have been detained by intelligence agencies, as well as constitutional challenges involving Musharraf’s continued rule as president and head of the military. Chaudhry challenged his suspension in court. Pakistan’s Supreme Court ruled that President Musharraf acted illegally when he suspended Chaudhry, and reinstated him.

 

Radical Islamist clerics and students at Islamabad’s Red Mosque, who had carried out a violent campaign to impose Islamic law in Pakistan, exchanged gunfire with government troops in July 2007. The military laid siege to the mosque, which held nearly 2,000 students. Some students escaped or surrendered to officials, and the mosque’s senior cleric, Maulana Abdul Aziz, was caught by officials when attempting to escape. After negotiations between government officials and mosque leaders failed, troops stormed the compound and killed Abdul Rashid Ghazi, who took over as chief of the mosque after the capture of Aziz, his brother. More than 80 people died in the violence. Violence in remote tribal areas intensified after the raid. In addition, the Taliban rescinded the cease-fire signed in September 2006, and a series of suicide bombings and attacks followed.

 

Musharraf’s political troubles intensified in the late summer of 2007. In August, the Supreme Court ruled that Nawaz Sharif could return to Pakistan from exile in Saudi Arabia. Both Sharif and Benazir Bhutto had sought to challenge Musharraf’s role as military leader and president. Days after the ruling, Bhutto revealed that Musharraf had agreed to a power-sharing agreement, in which he would step down as army chief and run for reelection as president. In exchange, Bhutto, who had been living in self-imposed exile for eight years, would be allowed to return to Pakistan and run for prime minister. Aides to Musharraf denied an agreement was reached, though Musharraf said that if elected to a second term as president, he would step down from his post as army chief. In September, Sharif was arrested and deported just hours after he returned to Pakistan.

 

On October 6, 2007, Musharraf was easily reelected to a third term, after opposition groups boycotted the vote. That same month, Bhutto returned to Pakistan, much to the delight of her supporters. The celebration quickly ended when a suicide bomber attacked her convoy, killing as many as 135 people. Bhutto survived the attack.

 

On November 3, Musharraf declared a state of emergency, suspended Pakistan’s constitution, and fired Chief Justice Chaudhry and the other judges on the Supreme Court. In addition, police arrested at least 500 opposition figures. Political opponents said Musharraf had in effect declared martial law. Analysts suggested that Musharraf was trying to preempt an upcoming ruling by the Supreme Court, which was expected to declare he could not constitutionally run for president while head of the military. Musharraf claimed he acted to stem a rising Islamist insurgency.

 

On November 5, thousands of lawyers took to the streets to protest the emergency rule and clashed with police. As many as 700 lawyers were arrested, including Chaudhry, who was placed under house arrest. Under pressure from US officials, Musharraf said parliamentary elections would take place in January 2008.

 

On November 9, thousands of police officers barricaded the city of Rawalpindi, the site of a protest planned by Bhutto. She was later placed under house arrest, but released the next day.

 

Nawaz Sharif returned to Pakistan on November 25 after eight years in exile and demanded that Musharraf lift the emergency rule and reinstate the Supreme Court justices that were dismissed. Musharraf stepped down as military chief three days later, the day before being sworn in as a president. General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, the former head of Pakistan’s intelligence agency, took over as army chief.

 

Musharraf ended emergency rule on December 14 and restored the constitution. However, he also issued several executive orders and constitutional amendments that precluded any legal challenges related to his actions during and after emergency rule. In addition, barred the judges who he had fired from resuming their positions.

 

Bhutto was assassinated in a suicide attack on December 27 at a campaign rally in Rawalpindi. Musharraf blamed al-Qaeda for the attack, which killed 23 other people. Bhutto’s supporters, however, accused Musharraf’s government of orchestrating the assassination. Rioting throughout the country followed the attack, and the government shut down nearly all the country’s services to thwart further violence. Musharraf postponed parliamentary elections, which had been scheduled for January 8, 2008, until February 18.

 

In the parliamentary elections, Musharraf’s party, the Pakistan Muslim League-Q, which had been in power for five years, suffered a stunning defeat. The opposing Pakistan Peoples Party, led by Bhutto’s widower, Asif Ali Zardari, won 80 of the 242 contested seats. The Pakistan Muslim League-N, led by Sharif, took 66 seats. Musharraf party’s won just 40. The Pakistan People’s Party and the Pakistan Muslim League-N formed a coalition government. In March, Parliament elected Fahmida Mirza as speaker, becoming the first woman in Pakistan elected to the position.

 

In March, Zardari selected Yousaf Raza Gillani, who served as speaker of Parliament in the 1990s under Benazir Bhutto, as prime minister. One of Gillani’s first moves was to release the Supreme Court justices that Musharraf ousted and detained.

 

The new government signaled it would set a clear change of course when it announced that it would negotiate with militants who lived and trained in Pakistan’s remote tribal areas. The policy met resistance from the United States, which, with approval from Musharraaf, has stepped up its attacks against the militants.

 

Fighting along Kashmir’s Line of Control broke out over the summer of 2008, after more than four years of relative calm. The problems arose after authorities in Indian-controlled Kashmir transferred 99 acres of land to a trust that runs a Hindu shrine, called Amarnath. Muslims launched a series of protests. The government rescinded the order, which outraged Hindus. About 40 people were killed in the protests and counter-demonstrations, which involved several hundred thousand people. Despite the hostilities, a trade route between India and Pakistan across the Line of Control opened in October for the first time in 60 years.

 

US intelligence agencies determined that Pakistan’s Directorate of Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) helped to carry out an attack in July that killed more than 50 people outside the Indian Embassy in Kabul, including two Indian diplomats. The attack occurred while Gillani was in the United States meeting with President Bush. Officials also said that the ISI had been tipping off militants about US operations against them.

 

In August, the government announced plans to initiate impeachment proceedings against Musharraf on charges of violating the constitution and misconduct. The charges stemmed from his actions in November 2007 when he suspended the country’s constitution and fired Chief Justice Chaudhry and the other judges of the Supreme Court. Days later Musharraf resigned as president.

 

In September, the two houses of Parliament elected Zardari president by a wide margin.

 

The Pakistani military launched a three week air assault into Afghanistan’s Bajaur region throughout August, which resulted in more than 400 Taliban casualties. The air strikes forced many al-Qaeda and Taliban militants to retreat from towns formally under their control. However, the Pakistani government declared a cease-fire for the month of September in observance of Ramadan, raising fears that the Taliban would use the opportunity to regroup.

 

A truck bomb exploded outside the popular Marriott Hotel in Islamabad in September, killing more than 50 people and wounding hundreds. The bomb went off as government leaders, including the president and prime minister, were dining a few hundred yards away.

 

On November 26, Islamic militants with ties to Pakistan launched one of the most ambitious and deadly terrorist attacks in India’s history. Approximately 170 people were killed and about 300 wounded in a series of attacks on several landmarks and commercial hubs in Mumbai, India. It took Indian forces three days to end the siege of two hotels and the office of a Jewish organization. Indian and US officials said they had evidence that the Pakistan-based militant Islamic group Lashkar-e-Taiba was involved. Lashkar-e-Taiba was established in the late 1980s, with the assistance of Pakistan’s spy agency, to fight Indian control of the Muslim section of Kashmir. The accusation further strained an already tense relationship between the two countries.

 

History of Pakistan (Wikipedia)

Although immigrants were only labeled as “Pakistani” after the nation was formed in 1947, people from the area of Pakistan began immigrating to the US in the mid-19th century, mostly working on farms or construction. In 1907, Indian Muslims worked alongside Sikhs and Hindu Indians, 2,000 of whom helped build the Western Pacific Railroad. Despite discriminatory immigration policies and racist organizations like the Asiatic Expulsion League (established in 1907), many Indians purchased land and established themselves in America. After the passage of the more liberal Immigration Act of 1965, Pakistani immigration exploded. The initial immigrants tended to be well-educated professionals. They congregated in large cities like New York, Los Angeles, Philadelphia and Chicago partially because of the availability of jobs, and partially because of their familiarity with living in an urban, ethnically diverse environment.

 

Pakistan’s relations with the United States first developed against the backdrop of the Cold War. Pakistan’s strategic geographic position made it a valuable partner in the battle against the Soviet Union and the spread of communism. In 1954, Pakistan signed a Mutual Defense Agreement with the US and subsequently became a member of the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO) and Central Treaty Organization (CENTO). These agreements allowed the US to use Pakistan as a base for American military reconnaissance flights over Soviet territory.

 

Pakistan, in return, received large amounts of economic and military assistance. The program of military assistance continued until the 1965 Indo-Pakistani War when President Lyndon B. Johnson placed an embargo on arms shipments to Pakistan and India. The American embargo on Pakistan remained in place during the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971 and was not lifted until 1975, during the administration of President Gerald Ford.

 

US-Pakistani relations preceding the 1971 war were characterized by poor communication and much confusion. The administration of President Richard M. Nixon was forced to formulate a public stance on the brutal crackdown on East Pakistanis by West Pakistani troops that began in March 25, 1971. Nixon maintained that the crackdown was essentially a Pakistani internal affair in which direct intervention of outside powers was to be avoided. His administration expressed its concern about human rights violations and restricted the flow of assistance, but stopped short of an open condemnation.

 

Following the loss of East Pakistan, Pakistan withdrew from SEATO. Pakistan's military links with the West continued to decline throughout Zulfikar Ali Bhutto’s tenure in power and into the first years of the Zia regime. CENTO was disbanded following the fall of the shah of Iran in March 1979, and Pakistan then joined the Nonaligned Movement. Zia also continued Bhutto’s policy of developing Pakistan’s nuclear capability. This policy had originated as a defensive measure in reaction to India’s nuclear test explosion in 1974. In April 1979, President Jimmy Carter cut off economic assistance to Pakistan (except for food assistance), as required under the Symington Amendment to the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961. This amendment called for ceasing economic assistance to non-nuclear weapon countries that imported uranium-enrichment technology. Relations between the United States and Pakistan were further strained in November 1979 when protesters sacked the United States embassy in Islamabad, resulting in the death of four people. The violence had been sparked by a false report that the United States was involved in a fire at the Grand Mosque in Mecca.

 

The Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in December 1979 revived the close relationship between Pakistan and the United States. Initially, Zia spurned the Carter administration’s offer of $400 million in economic and military aid to Pakistan. Under President Ronald Reagan, the US agreed in 1981 to provide $3.2 billion to Pakistan over a period of six years, equally divided between economic and military assistance. A second economic and military assistance program was announced in 1986, this time for over $4 billion, with 57% for economic assistance. US military assistance included the controversial sale of 40 F-16 fighter planes to Pakistan—planes capable of delivering a nuclear weapon. Although Pakistan did not possess such weapons then, it’s been reported that officials in the Reagan administration knew of Pakistan’s effort to develop such weapons of mass destruction and pretended not to know about the clandestine program while lobbying Congress for more aid to the Zia regime.

 

The continuation of the Soviet war in Afghanistan led to waivers—in the case of Pakistan—of legislative restrictions on providing aid to countries with nuclear programs. The Pressler Amendment of 1985 required that if the United States president could not certify to Congress on an annual basis that Pakistan did not possess a nuclear weapon, US assistance to that country would be cut off. For several years, the US looked the other way when it came to Islamabad’s nuclear ambitions. But with the Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan in 1989 and the end of the Cold War, the US began to take a harder position on the nuclear weapons issue. In 1990, President George H. W. Bush refused to make the certification required under the Pressler Amendment and assistance to Pakistan was subsequently terminated.

 

On August 17, 1988, a plane carrying President Zia, American Ambassador Arnold Raphel, US Brigadier General Herbert Wassom, and 28 Pakistani military officers crashed on a return flight from a military equipment trial near Bahawalpur, killing all on board.

 

Throughout the 1990s, the United States essentially ended military cooperation and arms sales to Pakistan. It was only after the 9/11 terrorist attacks against the US that the Bush Administration chose to re-engage with Pakistan in the area of defense cooperation.

 

U.S-Pakistan Military Cooperation (by Greg Bruno and Jayshree Bajoria, Council on Foreign Relations)

Deception: Pakistan, the United States, and the Secret Trade in Nuclear Weapons (Middle East Institute)

The US-Pakistan relationship was transformed by the September 2001 terrorist attacks on the United States and the ensuing enlistment of Pakistan as a key ally in US-led counterterrorism efforts. Top US officials have praised Pakistan for its ongoing cooperation, although doubts exist about Islamabad’s commitment to some core US interests. Pakistan is identified as a base for terrorist groups and their supporters operating in Kashmir, India, and Afghanistan. Pakistan’s army has conducted unprecedented and largely ineffectual counterterrorism operations in the country’s western tribal areas, where al-Qaeda operatives and their allies are believed to enjoy “safe haven.” US officials are increasingly concerned that the cross-border infiltration of Islamist militants from Pakistan into Afghanistan is a key obstacle to defeating the Taliban insurgency. In addition, American intelligence officials have privately expressed worry over Pakistan’s intelligence agency and its connections with Islamic radicals.

 

Despite whatever concerns existed in Washington, officials in the Bush administration pressed for substantial increases in US military aid to Pakistan. It secured authority from Congress to waive restrictions on aid to Pakistan, and in June 2004, President George W. Bush designated Pakistan a major Non-NATO ally.

 

In 2006, the United States signed arms transfer agreements with Pakistan in excess of $3.5 billion, ranking Pakistan first among all arms clients of the US during that year. The key elements in Pakistan’s arms purchases were 36 F-16 fighter aircraft for $1.4 billion; a variety of missiles and bombs to be utilized on the F-16s for over $640 million; the purchase of Mid-Life Update Modification Kits to upgrade Pakistan’s existing F-16 aircraft for $890 million; and 115 M109 155mm Self-propelled howitzers for $52 million. The total value of Pakistan’s 2006 arms purchases from the US nearly matched the total value of all military purchases made by Pakistan from the United States between 1950 and 2001 (which equaled more than $3.6 billion in current dollars).

 

Over the last two years, however, US officials have begun to grow weary of Pakistan’s close ties with Islamic militants—to the point where Washington ordered commando raids against Taliban and al-Qaeda elements inside Pakistani territory. In September 2008, American Special Forces raided a village that was home to al-Qaeda militants in the tribal region near the border with Afghanistan. The New York Times later reported that in July, President Bush authorized Special Ops units to launch ground attacks inside Pakistan without seeking approval from the Pakistani government. A top Pakistani military leader said the army would not tolerate such attacks, and subsequently, Pakistan’s military assumed a more forceful posture towards encroaching American military operations.

 

US-Pakistani relations became even more tense in the wake of the November attacks in Mumbai. Leaks out of Washington indicate officials believe Pakistan’s intelligence operation may have had a hand in helping the militants who carried out the well-orchestrated assaults on multiple targets. However, no concrete evidence has been produced.

 

A total of 153,533 people identified themselves as being of Pakistani ancestry in the 2000 US census.

 

In 2006, 126,168 Americans visited Pakistan. Tourism has expanded rapidly since 2002, when 69,030 Americans traveled to Pakistan.

 

In 2006, 31,978 Pakistanis visited the US. The number of tourists has fluctuated between a low of 31,222 (2003) and a high of 39,442 (2002) in recent years.

Pakistan-U.S. Relations (by K. Alan Kronstadt, Congressional Research Service)

U.S. Arms Sales to Pakistan (by Richard F. Grimmett, CRS Report)

The U.S.-Pakistan Strategic Relationship and Nuclear Safety/Security (by Stephen P. Cohen, Brookings Institute)

U.S.-Pakistan Relations: Assassination, Instability, and the Future of U.S. Policy (by C. Christine Fair, RAND Corporation)

 

While relations between the US and Pakistan have largely been dominated by talk of military and counterterrorism efforts, trade has increasingly become an important part of the bilateral relationship. From 2003 to 2007, US imports from Pakistan grew from $2.5 billion to $3.5 billion, while exports also increased from $843 million to $2.03 billion.

 

American imports were led by apparel and household goods, which increased from $1.4 billion to $2.6 billion. Other key imports were scientific, medical and hospital equipment, rising from $28 million to $46 million; and rugs and floor coverings, increasing from $99 million to $105 million.

 

While the US continues to buy retail clothing from Pakistan in ever-growing amounts, it is not purchasing as much cotton cloth and fabrics as it used to. Such sales have dropped from $373 million to $200 million over a five year period.

 

American exports to Pakistan were led by civilian aircraft, which have skyrocketed from $6 million to $452 million. Other valuable exports were parts for military goods, rising from $13.3 million to $67 million; tanks, artillery, missiles and other weapons, increasing from $816,000 to $63.5 million; telecommunications equipment, jumping from $17.5 million to $91 million; industrial machines, rising from $18.6 million to $62 million; generators and accessories, elevating from $18.1 million to $97.7 million; steelmaking materials, increasing from $1.7 million to $66 million; and raw cotton, going from $178 million to $257 million.

 

Overall, the US is running a trade deficit with Pakistan, importing $3.5 billion versus $2.03 billion in exports.

 

The US gave $734.4 million in aid to Pakistan in 2007. The budget allotted the most funds to Foreign Military Financing ($297 million), Education ($124.4 million), Humanitarian Assistance: Protection, Assistance and Solutions ($100 million), Health ($63.2 million), Social Services and Protection for Especially Vulnerable People ($53 million), and International Narcotics Control and Law Enforcement ($24 million). 

 

The 2008 budget estimate increased aid to $798.1 million, including $60 million in supplemental aid. The 2009 budget request will increase aid further to $826.3 million and will distribute the most aid to Foreign Military Financing ($300,000), Education ($163.5 million), Health ($96.1 million), Private Sector Competitiveness ($59.9 million), Humanitarian Assistance: Protection, Assistance and Solutions ($50 million), Good Governance ($33.2 million), International Narcotics Control and Law Enforcement ($32 million).

 

The US sold $313.8 million of defense articles and services to Pakistan in 2007.

 

Congressional Budget for Foreign Operations (pages 624-627) (PDF)

In September 2008, Pakistani troops fired on a pair of US helicopters before exchanging gunfire with American ground forces along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border. The reconnaissance helicopters were not hit by the small arms fire and no injuries were reported. The conflict increased tensions between Pakistan and the US, already high following an incident in June when a US air strike killed 11 Pakistani soldiers at a border outpost. The American operation in September was part of a plan implemented during the waning days of the Bush administration to score victories against the Taliban and al-Qaeda strongholds before a new president was to be sworn in the following year. Most of the military missions by American forces have involved the firing of missiles from unmanned drones into areas inhabited by suspected militants.

 

The attacks have angered many Pakistani civilian leaders, and prompted the military to announce it would defend its borders “at all costs.” Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari insisted his military only fired warning flares into the sky towards the Americans to warm them they had strayed into Pakistani airspace. Zardari later said in a speech before the United Nations that his country cannot allow its territory to “be violated by our friends.” Officials with the US Central Command said a group of American and Afghan border police were about 1-1/2 miles inside Afghanistan with the helicopters flying above the routine patrol.

United States, Pakistan troops trade gunfire at Afghan border (by Larry McShane, New York Daily News)

 

In May 2008, Pakistani officials said they were threatening to turn over to Iran six members of a tribal militant group Iran claims are “spies” for the CIA. The group, Jundullah, operates in Baluchistan on both sides of the border between Iran and Pakistan and has carried out a number of violent attacks on Iranian army facilities and officers inside the country. The CIA has denied any direct ties with the group, but US officials admitted that American intelligence officers had frequently met and advised Jundullah leaders. Also, current and former intelligence officers did lobby on behalf of the six men to keep them from being delivered to Iran. The men faced the risk of being put on trial as spies and executed. The Jundullah has reportedly been helpful in the hunt for al-Qaeda figures trying to move through the Baluchistan region to Iran. The capture of the Jundullah members was seen by intelligence sources in the region as another indication that Pakistan’s new government was distancing itself from the US and American intelligence operations in the country.

Pakistan May Turn Over U.S. 'Spies' To Iran (by Richard Esposito and Brian Ross, ABC News)

The State Department report on Pakistan’s human rights record for 2007 and 2008 revealed rampant human rights violations. In 2007, the human rights situation worsened significantly, when  former President Musharraf decided to impose a 42-day State of Emergency (SOE), suspend the constitution, and dismiss the Supreme and High Provincial Courts. Additionally, he demanded once again that all judges swear an oath of loyalty to his new legal order. Under the SOE, Musharraf suspended basic civil liberties, including freedom of speech and assembly. In December, Musharraf lifted the SOE and restored an amended constitution, which enhanced presidential powers. Regulatory restrictions were maintained on press activities and freedom of assembly.

 

During the 42 days of the SOE, the government imposed curbs on the media and arrested more than 6,000 lawyers, judges, political party workers and leaders, as well as civil society activists. By the end of the year, approximately one dozen activists, primarily lawyers and judges, remained under house arrest. The government restored public cable access to all but two channels of one private television station. The media, however, was required to sign a code of conduct that discouraged criticism of the government and led to self-censorship.

 

In 2008, democratic rule was restored in Pakistan. Asif A. Zardari, the widower of Benazir Bhutto (assassinated Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) leader) became the head of state on September 6, 2008, replacing resigned former President Pervez Musharraf. Along with the head of state, positions on the national parliament and Supreme Court were mainly replaced by PPP members. The newly elected government did not follow Musharraf’s restrictions adopted during the state of emergency in 2007. Instead, the government did not enforce media restrictions, lifted restrains on labor unions, withdrew politically motivated criminal charges, and forcefully withdrew approximately 3,000 active military officers from civil service positions that were assigned by Musharraf.

 

Despite the improvements that the newly elected government attempted to make, human rights violations remained rampant and seemed to increase in the state throughout 2008. There were numerous reports that the government committed an increasing number of arbitrary or unlawful killings throughout 2008, compared to 2007. Security forces killed individuals associated with criminal and political groups in staged encounters and during abuse in custody. The Society for Human Rights and Prisoners’ Aid (SHARP) reported 64 encounter killings and 101 killings in police custody. Police stated that these deaths frequently occurred when suspects attempted to escape, resisted arrest, or committed suicide. On the other hand, human rights observers, family members, and the press reported that security forces staged many of the deaths.

 

Politically motivated disappearances declined during the year. Police and security forces held prisoners incommunicado and refused to provide information on their whereabouts. The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) estimated that approximately 1,100 persons were missing, compared to 1,600 in 2007. Although some disappearances were associated with terrorism and national security cases, human rights organizations reported that many missing individuals were Sindhi and Baloch nationalists.

 

There were persistent reports that security forces, including intelligence services, tortured and abused persons. Human rights organizations reported incidents of beating, burning with cigarettes, whipping soles of the feet, prolonged isolation, electric shock, denial of food or sleep, hanging upside down, and forced spreading of the legs with bar fetters. Security force personnel reportedly raped women during interrogations. The government rarely took action against those responsible.

 

Prison conditions did not meet international standards and were extremely poor, except for those cells of wealthy or influential prisoners. Overcrowding was widespread. According to SHARP, there were 90,000 prisoners occupying 87 jails originally built to hold a maximum of 36,075 persons. Inadequate food in prisons led to chronic malnutrition for those unable to supplement their diet with help from family or friends. Access to medical care was a problem. Foreign prisoners often remained in prison long after their sentences were completed because there was no one to pay for deportation to their home countries. In addition, SHARP contended that cases of torture by police are underreported due to local customs.

 

Approximately 66% of the female prison population was awaiting trial on adultery-related offenses under the Hudood Ordinances, according to the Aurat Foundation. However, with the enactment of the Women’s Protection Bill in December 2006, women are no longer supposed to be arrested under the Hudood Ordinance, nor required to produce four witnesses to prove a charge of rape as required under the zina laws (laws regarding extramarital sexual intercourse). Family members had previously used the Hudood Ordinances to control their children from making their own choices in marriage. Abusive husbands sometimes invoked the ordinances, or neighbors invoked the ordinances to settle personal scores.

 

The government limited freedom of religion in practice. Islam is the state religion, and the constitution requires that laws be consistent with Islam. According to the constitution, Shari’a can be applied to a situation that is deemed to be in contradiction to the Koran. Therefore, citizens who are normally governed by secular law can be subject to Islamic law based on loose criteria.

Human Rights Watch chronicles the last states that permit executions of juvenile offenders in the September 2008 report titled “The Last Holdouts.” The report claims that in 2008, Pakistan executed one juvenile offender and currently has several juvenile offenders on death row awaiting the outcome of a judicial appeal, or the outcome of negotiations for pardons in exchange for financial compensation. Although in 2000 Pakistan issued a Juvenile Justice System Ordinance that banned the death penalty for crimes committed by citizens under 18, implementation remains limited due to the lack of courts and other structures called for in the law.

Amnesty International’s Human Rights report on the Islamic Republic of Pakistan has not yet been updated to discuss the human rights violations of the year 2008.

 

Paul H. Alling
Appointment: Sep 20, 1947
Presentation of Credentials: Feb 26, 1948
Termination of Mission: Left post Jun 27, 1948
Note: Commissioned during a recess of the Senate; recommissioned after confirmation on Dec 9, 1947.

 

H. Merle Cochran
Appointment: Mar 4, 1949
Note: Took oath of office, but did not proceed to post.

 

Avra M. Warren
Appointment: Feb 2, 1950
Presentation of Credentials: Feb 25, 1950
Termination of Mission: Left post Nov 26, 1952

 

John M. Cabot
Appointment: Sep 17, 1952
Note: Commissioned during a recess of the Senate; did not serve under this appointment.

 

Horace A. Hildreth
Appointment: May 13, 1953
Presentation of Credentials: May 19, 1953
Termination of Mission: Reaccredited when Pakistan became a republic; formally received Apr 23, 1956; left post May 1, 1957

 

James M. Langley
Appointment: Jun 13, 1957
Presentation of Credentials: Jul 27, 1957
Termination of Mission: Left post Jul 29, 1959

 

William M. Rountree
Appointment: Jun 18, 1959
Presentation of Credentials: Aug 17, 1959
Termination of Mission: Left post Feb 7, 1962

 

Walter P. McConaughy
Appointment: Mar 1, 1962
Presentation of Credentials: Mar 20, 1962
Termination of Mission: Left post May 27, 1966

 

Eugene Murphy Locke
Appointment: May 27, 1966
Presentation of Credentials: Jun 9, 1966
Termination of Mission: Left Pakistan, Apr 16, 1967

 

Benjamin H. Oehlert, Jr.
Appointment: Jul 27, 1967
Presentation of Credentials: Aug 16, 1967
Termination of Mission: Left post Jun 17, 1969

 

Joseph S. Farland
Appointment: Sep 19, 1969
Presentation of Credentials: Nov 15, 1969
Termination of Mission: Left post Apr 30, 1972

 

Note: Sidney Sober served as Chargé d'Affaires ad interim, May 1972–Dec 1973.

 

Henry A. Byroade
Appointment: Oct 15, 1973
Presentation of Credentials: Dec 5, 1973
Termination of Mission: Left post Apr 23, 1977

 

George S. Vest
Note: Nomination withdrawn May 5, 1977.

Arthur W. Hummel, Jr.
Appointment: Jun 8, 1977
Presentation of Credentials: Jun 28, 1977
Termination of Mission: Left post Jul 19, 1981

 

Robert I. Spiers
Appointment: Oct 1, 1981
Presentation of Credentials: Oct 29, 1981
Termination of Mission: Left post Oct 27, 1983

 

Deane Roesch Hinton
Appointment: Nov 21, 1983
Presentation of Credentials: Dec 26, 1983
Termination of Mission: Left post Nov 9, 1986

 

Arnold Lewis Raphel
Appointment: May 4, 1987
Presentation of Credentials: Jun 24, 1987
Termination of Mission: Died near Bahawalpur, Aug 17, 1988

 

Robert Bigger Oakley
Appointment: Aug 18, 1988
Presentation of Credentials: Sep 1, 1988
Termination of Mission: Left post Aug 29, 1991
Note: Commissioned during a recess of the Senate; recommissioned after confirmation on Oct 17, 1988.

 

Nicholas Platt
Appointment: Jul 2, 1991
Presentation of Credentials: Oct 24, 1991
Termination of Mission: Left post Nov 3, 1992

 

John Cameron Monjo
Appointment: Oct 9, 1992
Presentation of Credentials: Nov 10, 1992
Termination of Mission: Left post Sep 10, 1995

 

Thomas W. Simons
Appointment: Dec 19, 1995
Presentation of Credentials: Jan 25, 1996
Termination of Mission: Left post Aug 24, 1998

 

William B. Milam
Appointment: Aug 3, 1998
Presentation of Credentials: Sep 10, 1998
Termination of Mission: Left post Jul 6, 2001

 

Wendy Jean Chamberlin
Appointment: Jul 12, 2001
Presentation of Credentials: Sep 13, 2001
Termination of Mission: Left post May 29, 2002

 

Nancy Jo Powell
Appointment: Aug 2, 2002
Presentation of Credentials: Aug 16, 2002
Termination of Mission: Left post Nov 5, 2004

 

Ryan C. Crocker
Appointment: Oct 18, 2004
Presentation of Credentials: Nov 25, 2004
Termination of Mission: Left post, Mar 28, 2007

 

 

In the wake of the “Memogate” scandal, Pakistani Ambassador to the United States, Hussain Haqqani, was forced to resign on November 22, 2011. He was accused of writing a secret memo asking the U.S. military for assistance in changing Pakistan’s powerful military and intelligence agencies. The government of Pakistan has immediately appointed a former journalist and longtime activist for democracy and women’s rights as its new ambassador.

 

Given the ongoing tension between the civilian government of Pakistan and the military, the choice of Shehrbano “Sherry” Rehman is a careful one because she has ties to both sides.

 

Born December 21, 1960, in Karachi, Pakistan, Shehrbano “Sherry” Rehman grew up in a prominent family. Her father, Hassanally A. Rehman, was a lawyer and educator, while her mother served as the first woman vice president of the State Bank of Pakistan, and her uncle, the late Justice Tufail Ali Abdul Rehman, was Chief Justice of the Sindh and Balochistan High Courts. As a young woman in the early 1980s, Rehman left Pakistan to seek a Western education, studying Art History and Political Science at the University of Sussex in the UK and Smith College in the U.S., where she earned an undergraduate degree in 1985. As she was leaving Smith, Rehman confided to an admissions officer that “she had learned so much at Smith and was so excited to go back to Pakistan and get the women stirred up.”

 

Returning to Pakistan, Rehman worked as a professional journalist for twenty years, writing for national and international newspapers and periodicals. At the peak of her journalistic career, she was editor-in-chief of The Herald, which is one of Pakistan’s leading newsmagazines, for ten years and served as a member of the Council of Pakistan Newspaper Editors (CPNE) from 1988-1998. She also anchored a television show on current affairs in 1999.

 

A member of Benazir Bhutto’s Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), which is Pakistan’s left-of-center political formation, Rehman’s political career started with an appointment as a Member of National Assembly (MNA) from 2002 to 2007 for a seat reserved for women from Sindh province. During these years, Rehman was the National Assembly’s Central Information Secretary. She was also a member of the PPP’s Foreign Relations Committee, and the PPP’s President of Policy Planning. During her time as an MNA, Rehman authored five PPP bills on highly controversial issues of importance to women: the Women Empowerment Bill, the Anti-Honor Killings Bill, the Domestic Violence Prevention Bill, the Affirmative Action Bill and the Hudood Repeal Bill, which allowed rape to be prosecuted under civil, rather than Sharia, law. She also sponsored two press freedom bills: the Freedom of Information Bill and the Press Act, which protects journalists from arrest under the 1999 Press Ordinance.

 

In March 2008, Rehman was re-appointed by declaration as MNA from Sindh to the MNA seat reserved for women. Pakistani Prime Minister Yusuf Gilani appointed her Minister for Information & Broadcasting, and she was sworn in by President Pervez Musharraf on March 31, 2008. She resigned that post not quite a year later, on March 14, 2009, because she was critical of President Asif Ali Zardari’s stated intent to impose new restrictions on the press and media.

 

In order to legally qualify to be ambassador to the United States, Rehman resigned her seat in the National Assembly on November 24, 2011, the day after she was nominated as ambassador. This order of events led to a legal challenge since MNAs are not allowed to accept executive appointments.

 

Outside of government, Sherry Rehman is the chair of the Lady Dufferin Foundation Trust, reportedly the largest non-profit provider of women and children’s subsidized health-care in Sindh province. She is also chair of the Board of Governors of the Jinnah Institute, a liberal think tank based in Karachi.

 

Rehman’s book Kashmiri Shawl: From Jamawar to Paisley,, co-authored with Naheed Jafri, was published in 2006.

 

Sherry Rehman is married to banker Nadeem Hussain, who is the President and Chief Executive Officer of Tameer Microfinance Bank. According to the Declarations of Assets for 2005-2006 filed by MNAs, Sherry Rehman was the richest PPP member, with net assets of Rs. 221.71 million ($5.3 million in 2006), compared to her declared net assets of Rs. 52.49 million for 2002-2003 ($1.1 million in 2003).

 

Sherry Rehman (Wikipedia)

Pakistan’s Ambassador to U.S. Resigns amid Clash between Government and Military (by Noel Brinkerhoff, AllGov)