Pakistan fears instability after U.S. Pullout from Afghanistan

ISLAMABAD, June 4: As Washington fumed over the jailing of a Pakistani doctor who helped the CIA hunt down Osama bin Laden, an educated Islamabad businesswoman voiced her own outrage - at the United States. �All we ever got from the Americans is instability and violence,� she said, echoing what many Pakistanis believe is Washington�s contribution to their country and region over three decades. �Didn�t you know Osama bin Laden was a CIA agent?�, she asked at a dinner attended by Western diplomats, referring to his role in US-backed resistance to the Soviet occupation in Afghanistan in the 1980s. �Then he was on the same side as Washington.� In Pakistan, public opinion increasingly views the United States as a fickle, selfish ally despite the billions of dollars in aid that flow to the cash-strapped South Asian nation. It is a view that has only deepened since US troops killed bin Laden on Pakistani soil in May 2011. The raid, kept secret from Pakistani authorities, was a humiliation for the powerful military and raised searching questions about whether it was harbouring militants. Relations have soured further after a court last week imprisoned for 33 years the Pakistani doctor who helped the CIA find the al Qaeda chief and mastermind of the 9/11 attacks. �Most people in Washington are upset with Pakistan. Dr (Shakil) Afridi goes to jail, this guy should be a hero, instead you (Pakistan) are treating him like a crook,� said one U.S. Official. (AGENCIES)