‘Maintaining Pakistan ties in US interest’

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has voiced Washington’s growing dissatisfaction with Pakistan’s anti-terror performance but argued that sustaining a relationship with country is in America’s own interest. The chief American diplomat also recognized the oft-missed point that Washington has partly been responsible for the challenging relationship between the two countries. As relations between the two countries remain troubled and stalemated – over several issues including long-sought U.S. apology on last year’s Salala attacks – Clinton used some stinging observations regarding Pakistan’s policies and said the country is losing sovereignty, which, she argued, meant control over the territory. Her remarks indicated that Washington would continue to pressurize Pakistan on the issue of Afghan militants finding a sanctuary on its side of the border. She told Charlie Rose Show in an appearance along with former Secretary of State James Baker, who led foreign policy efforts under George Walker Bush from 1989-92, that despite current difficulties, breaking off ties with Pakistan was not the appropriate option. “I think that our relationship with Pakistan has been challenging for a long time. Some of it is of our own making,” Clinton told the program. She also demanded that Dr Shakil Afridi, the Pakistani who worked for CIA in hunt for bin Laden before his death in the American raid last summer, be released. But, Clinton said, she “completely agree(s ) it is not in our interests to cut off our relationship” with Pakistan. “It is in our interest to try to better direct and manage that relationship,” she recognized. Washington, she said, is dealing with a country that “has a lot of difficult issues both for themselves and then for us and others.” “There are several things that we’re asking the Pakistanis to do more of and better. Number one, they’ve got to do more about the safe havens inside their own country.” The US Secretary of State also took a swipe at Pakistani complaints about Washington’s disregard for its sovereignty. “They talk a lot about sovereignty. Well, the first job of any sovereign nation is to protect your own people and secure your own borders. And therefore that’s what they should be doing, and by doing so they would help themselves first and foremost, help the Afghans, help us, and others.”