Pak-US ties
By Wajahat Latif September 11, 2008 Two years after its creation in 1947, Pakistan established diplomatic relations with the US. It acquired the status of a "most aligned ally", as Field Marshal Ayub Khan bragged in the US in 1960. Under General Musharraf that status became MNNA (Major Non NATO Ally). But the US remained in control.
In 1965 the US cut off military assistance to Pakistan when it went to war with India, and military sales to Pakistan were not resumed till 1975. April 1979 it cut off economic and military assistance on account of Pakistan's nuclear programme. In 1981, US aid was resumed after the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979.
In 1998, the aid was suspended again on account of Pakistan's nuclear explosion and a long period of sanctions followed. Musharraf's coup came in 1999. In 2001 General Musharraf, in exchange for billions of dollars of assistance to the army, made a decisive shift towards the US and provided all logistical support in their invasion of Afghanistan and hunt for Osama bin Laden and Al-Qaeda.
Al-Qaeda's attack on the heart of the financial district in down town New York on September 11, 2001 had changed the world and the US attitude towards it for a long time to come.
