An interesting history of foreign funding demands continuous vigilance and probably stringent regulations in certain areas. The current wave of discussions on foreign funding to a political party attracted the attention of the masses.
A penny of foreign funding whether it is political, developmental or academic, is inconceivable without an agenda. On the political front we witnessed both obvious and tacit foreign-funded campaigns and programmes for several political parties. An analysis of international dynamics and our history of relations with other countries clearly indicate that every nation acted in their own interest and played their part in exploiting the sentiments of masses through carefully designed funding programmes.
Almost every political party, whether on the right, left or centre, seems labelled a beneficiary of direct or indirect foreign funding and influence, including those who snatched power without being in any political party. Our partnership with international campaigns inside Afghanistan opened a huge corridor for other countries to openly fund political parties to toe their line which many times seemed appropriate to policymakers of the time but in the long run those proved detrimental. There is hardly any country, maybe except one, in our friendship list that missed any opportunity to damage our sovereignty through their accomplices in the country for their own strategic national interests.
International recognitions, titles, awards and associated prize money all are part of a specific design. In today’s open and global community we certainly cannot put embargoes on such instances. However, we can surely develop a programme to engage with such accomplished personalities and maybe organizations that are being recognized internationally to brief them on greater designs being part of such programmes. Historically we remained judgmental and disassociated with those who stayed little away from the mainstream and we intentionally or unintentionally started creating doubts about their thoughts and activities.
We need to expand our horizon to accommodate every thought which emerges in our society, we should give due attention, listen to them carefully, try to resolve their concerns to the utmost possibility and publicise all such endeavours for the masses to determine appropriate dimensions. It is all about acceptance at the grassroot level which provides breeding opportunities to ideas and thoughts. Genuine engagements melted several movements in recent history, so we must let people know about every thought which any faction of the society pursues but this awareness has to be through authentic and mainstream sources, not from purposely built infrastructures for communications with objectives or the kind of sponsored programmes and personalities which pollute even straight realities.
Let the market forces determine the appropriate course of events, but this can only happen when masses and these forces have access to all truths; partial information breeds confusion where actors with malicious intentions find space to implement their agenda. We witnessed several events in the recent past from the Iraq war to the campaign in Afghanistan where those initiated with the help of popular consensus and also terminated due to growing public opinion against these instances.
Now is the time where we cannot survive with narrow views about circumstances, we cannot hide realities from being public, we cannot mould opinions according to our desires, we can only engage with every thought, every viewpoint and every individual to find common ground and to provide appropriate solutions for all stakeholders.
We being a multi-ethnic and multi-sectarian society, conveniently provide opportunities to probably every plotter on this planet to pursue his or her designs. Therefore it is required to promote rule of law, equal opportunity, equitable progress and nationhood, to include every stakeholder of the society to reap the benefits of peaceful and prosperous Pakistan.
Academic funding in terms of scholarships and projects are never introduced without plans. Although these programmes are of great value for countries like Pakistan; beneficiaries get access to latest knowledge, technology trends, evolving thoughts and groomed infrastructures, but still we need to understand the deep-rooted agendas in these programmes. On the homepage of the Fulbright program it is clearly mentioned that one of the objectives of the program is mutual understanding between the USA and partner nations, these understandings are tacitly about creating advocates for the USA. We are quite familiar with the role of certain graduates of Russian scholarships. A report on the China Scholarship suggests, “Since the 2010s, U.S. officials have voiced concerns that the Chinese government may attempt to influence or exploit Chinese students on study abroad programs in its quest for foreign technology. Some Chinese student associations at U.S. universities have spoken out about the Chinese government’s efforts to provide unwanted “guidance.” However, in the first half of 2020, the U.S. Department of Justice charged several Chinese students with committing visa fraud and acting as agents of the People’s Republic of China. The extent to which the PRC government may attempt to influence Chinese students, by what means, and how to respond, remain the subjects of debate in the United States.” Although this report is about Chinese students studying in the USA, not about foreign students studying in China, it does highlight a grey area about academic funding.
It is mentioned on the website, “Chevening supports British foreign policy priorities”. Erasmus declares through a website that strengthening European identity is the objective of the programme. I am personally an advocate of sending our students and academicians to developed nations including China through available scholarship programmes to attain latest knowledge, because historically such programmes resulted in the transfer of knowledge from developed to less developed nations. But it doesn’t mean that we remain inattentive to this front. Our relevant bodies, including the HEC, should have a well-designed programme to listen to all beneficiaries of these programmes and help them align their intellectual attainments for the development of Pakistan through strategic interventions.
Influence of the development sector in developing countries through NGOs, big international charities, social movements and other international organizations is not a hidden fact for many of us. But still we cannot undermine the importance of advocacy, lobbying, rehabilitation and development projects for less privileged segments of the society. Environmental protection, education and awareness of rights, rule of law, freedom and inclusion are indeed important aspects for the development of the society.
However, incidences such as DNA sampling through an NGO do shake the trust on projects funded by the NGOs. Government has already initiated several precautionary measures and generally now people are quite aware of the role of NGOs and other such institutions, therefore, it is also important to provide space to those development sector players who really desire to contribute to the economic, cultural and social uplift of the nation.
There is a huge responsibility on political parties to remain transparent in terms of the funding they receive, especially from overseas. It is probably true of all parties that they collect funds from expatriates on a regular basis, which I think is not unlawful at all. But political parties should remain vigilant to avoid any trap under this cover. It is the responsibility of the state to channelize all funding extended to any party, even being aligned with national policies, as happened frequently in the past, to avoid complications in the future.
Once international donors have direct access to any party in the country, then it becomes difficult even for the state to stop the flow of funds. Hidden funding or open acceptance of foreign support certainly needs strong attention from law enforcement agencies to stop external interventions.
We being a multi-ethnic and multi-sectarian society, conveniently provide opportunities to probably every plotter on this planet to pursue his or her designs. Therefore it is required to promote rule of law, equal opportunity, equitable progress and nationhood, to include every stakeholder of the society to reap the benefits of peaceful and prosperous Pakistan.
