Antipathy would harm both
While an element of tension has rarely been absent in Pak-US relations, bitterness climaxed as a result of incidents in 2011 and the subsequent reactions from Pakistan. It started with Raymond Davis shooting two Pakistanis in February that year. This was followed by the killing of OBL inside Pakistan by the US Special Forces. In November 2011 NATO forces killed 24 Pakistani soldiers. While the first incident gave birth to complaints about the flagrant violation of Pakistan’s laws by the CIA, the second was seen as an outright violation of the country’s sovereignty. The third incident led to widespread resentment both among the common people and the military. In retaliation Pakistan decided to block the NATO traffic. It took nearly a year to bring a modicum of normalcy in relations between the two countries. Meanwhile the drone attacks continued to be a perennial source of complaints for the civil society, the government and opposition.
Come May 11 and the two parties that bagged the highest and second highest number of votes were those not willing to own the war on terror which they rejected as Washington’s war. Both favoured talks with the Pakistani Taliban and were opposed to the drone strikes. While Obama’s new policy regarding drone attacks inspired hopes in some that in the days to come the attacks would peter off. The expectations were belied on Tuesday when another strike killed four and injured as many.
Neither Pakistan nor the US can afford to escalate the existing tensions. The interests of the two countries demand promotion of friendly relations. An end to the power shortages and a resuscitation of the economy being among the top priorities of the PML-N government, it needs whatever technical or financial assistance it can garner from friendly countries, the US being high on the list. The Pakistani exporters have long aspired to enter the US and the EU markets, absence of goodwill however has tended to act as a non-tariff barrier. Pakistan also needs the US help in dealing with the IFIs. Its military requires modern arms and a regular supply of spare parts for US weapons. The US needs the region to be free of terrorists with international reach. This would be hard to ensure unless Washington and Islamabad are on the same page. The US has seen the consequences of leaving Pakistan holding the bag in 1989. Now that Pakistan also has an arsenal of 100 plus nuclear weapons, the prospects of abandoning it should all the more be worrisome. One hopes that the new government in Pakistan would realize the importance of ties with the US. Equally important is for Washington not to embarrass the PML-N administration with drone strikes or act with its characteristic hubris. Pakistan and the US both stand to benefit from friendly ties while antipathy would harm both.
