MU students feel effects of instability in Pakistan
MU students expressed concern for Pakistan's political instability.
Published Nov. 14, 2008
Junior Palwasha Khan might seem far removed from the recent violence in Pakistan that has made headlines and sparked intervention by the U.S. military.
Yet for Khan, the president of the South Asian Student Association at MU and whose extended family resides largely in Pakistan, the fighting has hit close to home.
"My cousin owns a business, and there was a riot in front of his store," Khan said.
Kahn's cousin was accidentally stabbed during the incident. And though she said her cousin recovered, there is uncertainty if Pakistan will recover.
MU political science professor Paul Wallace, who has taught courses about South Asia for 40 years and has traveled to Pakistan before, said everything is coming to a head right now in the country.
The virtual collapse of Pakistan's security and economic foundations shocked the world and now threatens to undermine the anti-terrorism funding and manpower the U.S. government has invested in the region.
But the Taliban's resurgence, as well as its role in the fighting in Pakistan, can be traced to U.S. actions.
"The U.S. threw the Taliban out of Afghanistan, so the Taliban went to Pakistan," Wallace said.
The violence in Federally Administered Tribal Area and North West Frontier Province, which has driven people into a state of fear and confusion, is only one issue currently threatening to unravel Pakistan. As Pakistan's military, which has become synonymous in Pakistan with American and NATO forces, fights to secure its borders, the nation's new democratic government is seeking to provide economic stability in a time when Pakistan has been hit hard by the international economic crisis.
In Wallace's estimation, Pakistan needs roughly $10 billion - it is requesting $9 billion from the International Monetary Fund.
Senior Furqaan Sadiq visited his family in Pakistan last December.
When he was there, he said he noticed that food prices, especially for grain and meat, two staples of the Pakistani diet, had risen dramatically.
"People are frustrated," Sadiq said. "In desperate situations, people will do desperate things. They will cling to whoever will champion their cause."
Khan said, from what she has witnessed and heard in the region, the country faces a desperate situation.
"People are literally starving to death, holding their children and watching their child die," Khan said.
Sadiq said students in America are beginning to understand the situation.
"There has been a resurgence of college students who want to know more," Sadiq said. "It's changing in the direction of more enlightened individuals."
As military intervention seems increasingly futile and ineffective, Khan and Sadiq agree that understanding could come from better education in Pakistan.
"Education is the first step to humanity," Khan said. "If Pakistan would stop funding so much to the army, and more to education and building schools, then that can get people to understand. It's hard to understand other cultures when all they know is their own."
Khan is working to create more understanding of the situation in Pakistan among MU students. As the head of the South Asian Student Association, she said she would look to plan events on campus to raise awareness.
Wallace maintained that the outcome of the situation would ultimately be one with international implications.
"Although I don't see this happening, if the Taliban or al-Qaeda gained control of Pakistan, they would also have control of nuclear weapons," Wallace said. "This is not just a problem for Pakistan, but for the world."