Word: pakistani
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These factors have all served to erode any feeling of collective security in CENTO. In Islamabad, officials fear that the Shah's troubles might spill over into Pakistan, and in Tehran it is the other way around. Says one Pakistani official: "If the Shah, with all his might and wealth, can't keep the lid on, that will only encourage elements here who would like to see us come apart at the seams." Warns a high-ranking Iranian: "If the Pakistanis start to have really serious trouble with Baluchistan [a province in the west of the country whose tribal population...
...their common neighbor Afghanistan. In April a leftist junta overthrew and killed President Mohammad Daoud. American policymakers are reserving judgment on the nature and course of the new regime, but in Tehran and Islamabad the judgment is in, and it is thoroughly pessimistic, if somewhat alarmist. Iranian and Pakistani officials are certain that the coup was instigated by Moscow. After more than a century as a neutral buffer state in the great game, Afghanistan, they say, is now a Soviet satellite. "We, Pakistan, are now the buffer state," argues a foreign office man in Islamabad...
When asked what they think the U.S. should have done to stop the April coup or what the U.S. should do now about Afghanistan, Iranian and Pakistani critics merely lapse into vague expressions of frustration; they have few recommendations. But that, too, is part of the problem with CENTO: it is afflicted with a profound, inarticulate discontent with American policy, which is viewed as "retreat," "withdrawal," "failure of will" or "abandonment...
...Carter Administration policies as quixotic and punitive. Pakistan, for example, is furious over Washington's jawboning nuclear nonproliferation activities, which recently led France to cancel a contract to provide Pakistan with a nuclear reprocessing plant. The result, says Zia, is that "this is perhaps the lowest point the [U.S.-Pakistani] relationship has reached...
...wants the CENTO charter rewritten so that Pakistan could call for alliance help if threatened by an "indirect" Soviet attack. Washington interprets this as an unwarranted commitment to defend Zia in the event of another Indo-Pakistani war, and will have none of it. In response, the Pakistanis talk about the advantages of withdrawing from CENTO and joining the nonaligned movement. Says Zia: "CENTO is becoming a hindrance to Pakistan's security." Besides, he adds, "in the current day, it's better to be nonaligned than aligned. Look at India and Afghanistan. Both under the Soviet Union, yet they...