The relations between Pakistan and the US are seemingly heading towards a dead end owing to serious differences over future US Special Forces’ operations to take out al Qaeda and Taliban in Pakistan as well as the drone strikes with the civilian and military leadership in Islamabad assessing all its options on how to tackle the situation.
The level of trust in Islamabad and Washington is at its lowest with both sides looking at each other’s acts and policies with suspicion but not willing to budge from their respective positions on various aspects of anti-terrorism cooperation such as the US strong demand for special operations by CIA to hunt down al Qaeda and Taliban leaders in Pakistan and Islamabad’s refusal as well as serious differences over the drone strikes that are not coming to a halt despite repeated demands by Pakistani officials.A key US Congressional committee has approved conditional aid of $1.1 billion to Pakistan, withholding 75 percent of the fund until the Obama administration reports to Congress on how it would spend it.
“The move reflects the changing mood of US lawmakers towards Pakistan as an increasing number of influential Congressmen are questioning the decision of the Obama administration to give billions in aid to Pakistan as terrorists continue to operate in the country,” analyst Hasan Askari Rizvi told Pakistan Today.
“It shows that the level of trust between the two states has been considerably reduced.
The lawmakers in Washington believe and some in the administration too that there are links between some elements within Pakistani security organisations and the militants,” he said.
The proposal by US lawmakers to limit aid to Pakistan has come in the wake of a recent very important visit by CIA chief Leon Panetta to Islamabad during which he made the demand for the release of some local agents of the US spy agency, who were arrested by Pakistani agencies on charges of spying for CIA on Osama bin Laden.
This demand was turned down by Pakistani authorities along with rejection coupled with strong protest against blaming some elements within the ISI for collusion with the Taliban in the Tribal Areas.
Against this backdrop, the Pakistani civilian and military leadership held an unusual meeting on Monday to reassess the nature of ties with Washington and to reflect on repercussions for country on various fronts such as political, economic, diplomatic and defence in case of suspension of relations with the US.
“The meeting, however, remained inconclusive and it was decided that an in-house debate would be continued,” an official privy to the meeting said.
Security analyst Lt Gen (r) Talat Masood said there was no doubt that a serious crisis had developed in the relations between Islamabad and Washington and both governments were under immense pressure to clarify their positions on the current states of bilateral ties.
“But, I hope that the situation will not go to the extent of suspension of ties as that would have damaging consequences for the two sides,” he said.
