Pursuit of parity with India responsible for Pak's dysfunction

Pakistan has always sought to strengthen its military to be at par with India and this pursuit of parity is partially responsible for the country's domestic dysfunction, the country's former envoy to the US has said.
Since the very beginning after its independence, the Pakistani leadership has sought to strengthen its military to be at par with India, Husain Haqqani said.
"This pursuit of parity is partially responsible for Pakistan's domestic dysfunction," he said.
He said Indians in particular did not like the idea of partition in 1947 and probably still do not like the idea of partition.
"...I do not see India right now wanting to take over Pakistan for no other reason just because they do not want an additional set of problems to deal with. So Pakistan needs to get over this belief that everybody is out to get us. We need to be self-confident," he said at a function to release his latest book 'Magnificent Delusions' that hit the stores early this month.

He said Pakistan should emphasise on trade and economic issues rather than defence, arguing that decades of misguided American aid have only enabled the powerful military.

"The American delusion is if we give Pakistan enough assistance, they will not want to pursue their objective -- which is totally upside-down, because what you are doing is encouraging that whole process by arming them and saying ah! We have four squadrons of F-16 and three more we are ok," Haqqani said at the Hudson Institute, a think tank where he is a senior fellow.
"That is the psyche that has been fed over time."

"A nation with nuclear weapons should not behave like a guy who keeps buying guns because he says he needs to defend his family and then stays up all night because he's afraid somebody will come and steal his guns -- and then further down has a heart attack because of high blood pressure that he suffered from staying up," Haqqani said.
He said the American delusion that they can change Pakistan's world view by just by giving military and economic assistance was wrong.
The former Pak envoy said the US has been enabler in the rise of powerful military, by not understanding the Pakistani dysfunction and encouraging the Pak leadership to strengthen its army.