In comes the messenger
Ordinarily, Marc Grossman’s visit to the country would have been all over the airwaves. But, given the special circumstances that have emerged in the last 24 hours (for readers living under a rock, please refer to the editorial above), it didn’t get quite the viceregal coverage it usually gets. You could revive a dead man from suspended animation and it would appear as a mere blip on Pakistani TV news cycles.
The visiting US special envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan, will, however, be circumspect when he looks at the emerging situation in the country. Regardless of how much he or his diplomatic corps huff and puff, tensions with mere Americans are small fry now for the political dispensation in Pakistan.
None of this is, however, meant to trivialise the gravity of Mr Grossman’s visit. He comes to Pakistan at a time of strained ties. He might be here to dip his toe in the water and decide to throw his counterparts in the Pakistani diplomatic setup a fig leaf by apologising completely and unconditionally for the Salala incident. Yes, the apology which our foreign minister used to repeat emphatically, “won’t be enough.”
In what is the first high-level delegation after the Salala incident, Mr Grossman met with the army chief and though it would be premature to conjecture on what transpired in the pow wow, it is assumed the American wants to smoothen things out with the army. This is all bad form, of course, for the government to allow him to meet the military leadership. Yes, their hands might be full, but this is something that needed pre-emption.
though we cannot afford to become a pariah state in the comity of nations, it is also pertinent for the US to realise that it needs Pakistan’s cooperation in the war on terror, specially now that the Isaf forces are working on an American withdrawal from Afghanistan. The Pakistani deep state can use its leverage with the Afghan Taliban and throw a spanner in the works faster than one can say Mullah Baradar.
This is going to be a tightrope walk. More than just getting a good deal for the country, it is hoped that the political government is able to have a say in the whole process. A fat chance of that, given the current climate.