Pakistan-US trade and economic relations
There are around 1 million people in the Pakistani diaspora living in the United States of America (USA). From 3 to 5 May 1950, Pakistan’s first Prime Minister, Liaquat Ali Khan, visited Washington. It was a clear demonstration of Pakistan’s loyalty to the anti-Soviet bloc. The US responded well and provided economic aid to the tune of US USD 20 billion from 1953 to 1970. This was a very big sum in those periods.
Republicans such as Eisenhower, Johnson, and Nixon remained US President during that period except for a slightly less than three years’ term for Kennedy being a Democrat. Pakistan was the second or third-largest recipient of financial support from the US. Republicans were close to Pakistan on account of their internal semantics in the US. The Colombo Plan of 1950 was for Commonwealth countries; however, the USA supported it. The Plan was the first international help to Pakistan.
Pakistan’s industrial base is the product of that support from the US. The institutions like Pakistan Industrial Credit & Investment Corporation (PICIC), Institute of Business Administration (IBA) in Karachi and Pakistan Institute of Development Economics (PIDE) are the products of US collaboration. Pakistan remained the major partner of the US in its Cold War in the pre-1970 period. Pakistan’s stable foreign policy led the USA to establish the Regional Cooperation for Development (RCD) involving Iran and Turkey. Pakistan became an ideal country in Asia as a model for economic development. Per capita income of Pakistan reached US USD 175 in 1970 from 85 USD in 1947.
Up to that period economic relations with the US were moving in the right direction. However, domestic political and economic power was wholly concentrated in the western wing. There was no industrial group from the Eastern wing and even the industries in that area were owned by persons belonging to the Western wing. Resultantly,........
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