View: Is Pakistan next in line on Trump’s travel ban list?
BY: Mrutyuanjai Mishra
Is Pakistan next to be included in Trump´s immigration ban list? There have been primarily two kinds of reaction to the list of seven countries included in Trump´s ban list. Some have considered it unnecessary and others have considered it long overdue and necessary to protect the citizens of the United States from random terrorist attacks.
For a long time, the United States have been expecting Pakistan to clamp down robustly on its terrorist network, which flourishes despite all promises made to the White House to conquer and contain those terrorist organizations that openly preach violent jihadism.
Donald Trump has added his chief political strategist, Steve Bannon, to the National Security Council, a man who is a strong believer in two issues. One, it is important for America to wake up to the challenges faced by violent jihadism and the other is the confrontation that might come from China. Trump has good reasons to listen to the man who orchestrated his electoral victory, despite the strong recommendation by almost all mainstream media newspapers to vote for his opponent. The opposition from the mainstream media was unprecedented, as among the top 100 largest newspapers in America, just two endorsed Trump. 57 American newspaper editorial boards had endorsed and hoped for a victory to Hillary Clinton in the presidential race. This leaves Donald Trump having received fewer endorsements than any other presidential candidate in the history of the United States. Yet he won.
Steve Bannon, has therefore called the mainstream media ‘the opposition party’, and in an interview given to The New York Times, he added, “They (the media) don´t understand this country. They still do not understand why Donald Trump is the president of the United States.” Well, we know now who is the president and even more that he is busy fulfilling the promises he made to his people by passing presidential executive orders, the most famous of them the immigration ban on seven predominantly Muslim countries.
The fear now is that Pakistan could be included in the list. Bannon, who has been at both Harvard and Hollywood, seems determined that radical Islam is a real threat to the United States, and he would probably want the list to be more inclusive. Hence who could be next in the line becomes a relevant question.
Imran Khan, a populist opposition leader of the political party, Tehreek-e-Insaaf, expressed his desire to extend the ban to include Pakistan. When speaking to the party workers recently, Imran Khan said: “It is being heard that Pakistanis may face U.S. visa restriction. I pray that Trump also stops visa for Pakistanis as I believe that it will help us develop our own country.” Pakistan´s relationship with US has witnessed many ups and downs as it has not lived up to the expectation of robustly clamping down on the terrorist network. When Osama Bin Laden was found hiding in Pakistan close to military barracks in Abottabad in 2011, it further jeopardized the relations.
The White House Chief of Staff, Reince Priebus, stated explicitly in an interview, “You can point to other countries that have similar problems, like Pakistan and others – perhaps we need to take it further.” Whatever the outcome, the election of Trump has emboldened the political parties of Europe who similarly want to impose travel restrictions.
Having suffered Brexit and with elections due in France, Germany and the Netherlands, no country in Europe wants to be soft on immigration, either. Therefore the leaders of the European Union are desperately looking for ways to block asylum seeker routes from Libya, and are spending their time this weekend to find a lasting solution.
European leaders fearing similar outcomes in elections in EU countries, and especially those who fear outcomes similar to that of Brexit, have started insisting on some kind of vetting process to avoid terrorist attacks, which have hit many European capitals during the last two years.
Whether Pakistan comes on the list or not, one thing is getting clear, that whether you are in Europe or America, the willingness to accept asylum seekers from predominantly Islamic countries is becoming a heavily debated political issue, and from now on it will decide the outcome of the political battles, not just in US but in Europe too.
DISCLAIMER : Views expressed above are the author's own.
Is Pakistan next to be included in Trump´s immigration ban list? There have been primarily two kinds of reaction to the list of seven countries included in Trump´s ban list. Some have considered it unnecessary and others have considered it long overdue and necessary to protect the citizens of the United States from random terrorist attacks.
For a long time, the United States have been expecting Pakistan to clamp down robustly on its terrorist network, which flourishes despite all promises made to the White House to conquer and contain those terrorist organizations that openly preach violent jihadism.
Donald Trump has added his chief political strategist, Steve Bannon, to the National Security Council, a man who is a strong believer in two issues. One, it is important for America to wake up to the challenges faced by violent jihadism and the other is the confrontation that might come from China. Trump has good reasons to listen to the man who orchestrated his electoral victory, despite the strong recommendation by almost all mainstream media newspapers to vote for his opponent. The opposition from the mainstream media was unprecedented, as among the top 100 largest newspapers in America, just two endorsed Trump. 57 American newspaper editorial boards had endorsed and hoped for a victory to Hillary Clinton in the presidential race. This leaves Donald Trump having received fewer endorsements than any other presidential candidate in the history of the United States. Yet he won.
Steve Bannon, has therefore called the mainstream media ‘the opposition party’, and in an interview given to The New York Times, he added, “They (the media) don´t understand this country. They still do not understand why Donald Trump is the president of the United States.” Well, we know now who is the president and even more that he is busy fulfilling the promises he made to his people by passing presidential executive orders, the most famous of them the immigration ban on seven predominantly Muslim countries.
The fear now is that Pakistan could be included in the list. Bannon, who has been at both Harvard and Hollywood, seems determined that radical Islam is a real threat to the United States, and he would probably want the list to be more inclusive. Hence who could be next in the line becomes a relevant question.
Imran Khan, a populist opposition leader of the political party, Tehreek-e-Insaaf, expressed his desire to extend the ban to include Pakistan. When speaking to the party workers recently, Imran Khan said: “It is being heard that Pakistanis may face U.S. visa restriction. I pray that Trump also stops visa for Pakistanis as I believe that it will help us develop our own country.” Pakistan´s relationship with US has witnessed many ups and downs as it has not lived up to the expectation of robustly clamping down on the terrorist network. When Osama Bin Laden was found hiding in Pakistan close to military barracks in Abottabad in 2011, it further jeopardized the relations.
The White House Chief of Staff, Reince Priebus, stated explicitly in an interview, “You can point to other countries that have similar problems, like Pakistan and others – perhaps we need to take it further.” Whatever the outcome, the election of Trump has emboldened the political parties of Europe who similarly want to impose travel restrictions.
Having suffered Brexit and with elections due in France, Germany and the Netherlands, no country in Europe wants to be soft on immigration, either. Therefore the leaders of the European Union are desperately looking for ways to block asylum seeker routes from Libya, and are spending their time this weekend to find a lasting solution.
European leaders fearing similar outcomes in elections in EU countries, and especially those who fear outcomes similar to that of Brexit, have started insisting on some kind of vetting process to avoid terrorist attacks, which have hit many European capitals during the last two years.
Whether Pakistan comes on the list or not, one thing is getting clear, that whether you are in Europe or America, the willingness to accept asylum seekers from predominantly Islamic countries is becoming a heavily debated political issue, and from now on it will decide the outcome of the political battles, not just in US but in Europe too.
DISCLAIMER : Views expressed above are the author's own.
