Time for pragmatism
Pak-US relations are too important an issue to be exploited for playing to the gallery. There is no doubt that the Nato attack on Pakistani posts leading to the killing of 24 troops was a dastardly act requiring an apology from the US which has yet to come. Having said this, there remains a need on the part of the two countries to remain engaged over how to deal with the terrorists who present an existential challenge to Pakistan and have considerably raised the number of the US and allied casualties.
There is a perception that the estrangement between Islamabad and Washington has provided a godsend opportunity to the militants to regroup and fight with greater confidence. It has also been maintained that Pakistan army operating against militants in a number of Fata agencies has suffered more on account of the lack of information exchange and end to coordinated attacks. The hope that the cessation of cooperation with Washington would encourage the militants to stop attacks inside Pakistan and lead them to the negotiating table has proved to be false. Early this month, the TTP executed 15 Pakistani security personnel who they had kidnapped a month earlier. Brazen and deadly attacks on police and FC checkposts have taken place in Dera Ismail Khan, Bannu, Tank and outside Peshawar.
A TTP spokesman had made it clear last month that the outfit would not stop attacks inside Pakistan till the establishment of the type of Islamic system that the Taliban government had introduced in Afghanistan. He also maintained that the attacks on Pakistan army would, meanwhile, continue unabated. He had also denied that any TTP group had entered into talks with the government. The issue of Pak-US relations has been handed over to parliament. One expects the parliamentarians not to be carried away by rhetoric. Any indulgence in grandstanding would harm the country. Those outside parliament who really call the shots too need to realise that it is of utmost importance to resolve the differences with the US at the earliest.
