After Special US envoy Marc Grossman, General James N Mattis, the chief of US Army’s Central Command (CENTCOM), who was supposed to visit Pakistan a few days ago, has also advised by the Pakistani authorities to put off his trip until the completion of parliamentary review of Islamabad’s relations with Washington in the future.
General Mattis was expected to visit Islamabad in the middle of this month to meet army chief General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani and other senior military officials, but he was asked by Pakistani authorities to postpone his trip until the parliamentary review of Islamabad-Washington ties was over.
“The parliamentary review of relations between Pakistan and US will end with the joint session of both Houses of parliament, but it too is facing delay due to current political crisis in Islamabad, Senate polls and now the latest row between Islamabad and Washington over a resolution introduced in US Congress asking for a sovereign country for Baloch people,” said a Pakistani diplomat, seeking anonymity. “The session, which was expected to be held in the first week of February, will now be held in March, most likely in the middle of the month,” said the Pakistani diplomat.
“The delay in the parliamentary session means that the important trips of ambassador Grossman and General Mattis to Pakistan will be delayed further,” he said. He said the US was not happy over the delay in the completion of parliamentary review and that had been conveyed to Islamabad as well, but the government had no other choice but to wait for joint session of parliament.
However, he hastened to add that in order to take care of important issues of coordination and anti-terrorism cooperation between the Pakistani and US armies, the two sides could also agree on scheduling the General Mattis’ visit to Islamabad before the parliamentary session. The relations between Pakistan and US have been marred by tensions since the killing of al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden in a covert US raid on May 2 last year. These tensions exacerbated further after NATO airstrikes on two Pakistani border posts in November killed 24 soldiers.
Nonetheless, the resolution introduced last Friday by a member of US House of Representatives, Dana Rohrabacher (Republican from California), which said the people of Balochistan should have the right to self-determination and to their own sovereign country, led to furor in Pakistan and took the prevailing tensions to new heights. It is part of reconciliatory efforts that Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar will meet US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton on the sidelines of a conference in London today (Thursday).
