Fatima Bhutto: US Should Cut Pakistan Off

Don't give cash to corrupt government, says Zardari's niece

By Jason Farago, Newser Staff

Posted Apr 27, 2009 11:28 AM CDT

(Newser) – Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari is going to Washington next week to seek billions more to combat terrorism and keep the troubled nation afloat—and the Obama administration should swat away his outstretched hand, says Fatima Bhutto, estranged niece of Zardari's slain wife, Benazir Bhutto. "No amount of money, especially in the hands of a famously corrupt government, is going to help Pakistan stave off terror," she writes in the Daily Beast.

Pakistan has more suicide bombers than Iraq, a flourishing Taliban imposing Sharia law, and a leadership so corrupt that citizens now call Zardari "President Ghadari"—Urdu for "traitor." George W Bush gave Pakistan $10 billion to fight terror, to no discernible effect; meanwhile, the Taliban is able to insert itself into poverty-stricken areas by bringing what the government isn't: schooling, medical camps, and generators. For Bhutto, what Pakistan needs isn't cash, but a government that does its job "less leisurely."

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Pakistan's President Asif Ali Zardari attends the Pakistan donors conference at a Tokyo hotel, Japan, Friday, April 17, 2009. (AP Photo/Itsuo Inouye)

A Pakistani member of Taliban holds his weapon as he leaves Buner, northwestern Pakistan on Friday, April 24, 2009. (AP Photo/Naveed Ali)

Taliban militants who had seized a district just 60 miles from Pakistan's capital began pulling out Friday after the government warned it would use force to evict them. (AP Photo/Naveed Ali)

Supporters of Jamat-i-Islami condemn US drone attacks on alleged militants and Taliban hideouts in Pakistani border areas, in Peshawar, Pakistan on Friday, April 24, 2009. (AP Photo/Mohammad Sajjad)

A Taliban militant holds his weapon outside the mosque where tribal elders and the Taliban met in Daggar, Pakistan, Thursday, April 23, 2009. (AP Photo/Mohammad Sajjad)

Ghinva Bhutto, estranged sister-in-law of Pakistan's former PM Benazir Bhutto, offers prayers with step-daughter Fatima Bhutto at the grave of Bhutto near Larkana, Pakistan on Saturday, Dec. 29, 2007. (AP Photo/B.K.Bangash)

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A profile of Fatima Bhutto, the outspoken niece of Pakistan's assassinated prime minister Benazir Bhutto. (SaveOurSovereignty3)

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The billions of dollars we have received have not made Pakistan safer, they haven't made our neighbors safer, and they've done nothing in the way of eradicating terror. - Fatima Bhutto

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Fatima Bhutto: US Should Cut Pakistan Off