For all the efforts that President Zardari made at the Chicago summit to put across Pakistan’s genuine concerns over certain aspects of the US policy on the war on terror, it has become fairly evident that nothing has sunk in in Washington. As proof of the thickheaded approach US policy makers take towards Pakistan's sensibilities, even during Mr Zardari's continuing stay in the US, drone strikes continue. On two consecutive days, Wednesday and Thursday, several tribesmen were killed in North Waziristan. One strike was on a mosque. At the summit, Mr Zardari had called upon the US to put an end to drone attacks, offer an apology for the unprovoked killing of 24 of our security personnel stationed at Salala last November and reimburse the long-delayed payment of the Coalition Support Fund (CSF) before Nato supplies could be allowed to resume. None of these conditions are, by any stretch of imagination, too much for Pakistan to ask for. Drones are a violation of Pakistan’s sovereignty and a travesty of justice, whereby, stunningly, the US feels it appropriate to target persons for execution without due process. An apology for the Nato strike that left 24 Pakistani soldiers dead, after Pakistani contacts repeatedly alerted Nato forces that they were striking a friendly post, is the bare minimum Pakistan can be expected to ask of an ally. Reimbursement of the promised CSF is for the services already rendered on request of the Americans themselves, is an already agreed upon contract, which is yet to be fulfilled. To renege on a promise to an ally is not unusual, but is a most unbecoming character of our friend, the US. Tying the resumption of supplies to these demands is again an unsubtle form of blackmail. Labeling Pakistan's conditions "extortive" is laughable, considering that the US has benefited from the same conveniences from the Pakistani side for free in previous regimes. Perhaps it laments the good old days, but it may rest assured those are long gone. If the Zardari government is at least making the sole superpower pay through the nose for a deeply unpopular war, the Pakistani nation does not feel that to be unrepresentative of their wishes. Words like, “We are not going to be giving money to an ally that won’t be an ally,” and an indication of slashing aid by 58 percent by the US Senate is hardly likely to enamour Pakistanis to our American friends.
Washington committed itself to an abiding relationship with Islamabad as long as it felt that the latter was serving its strategic goals. Now Pakistan rightly balks at doing so, because doing so requires Pakistan to serve as a monastic serf, not a developing country with very real and urgent needs. In the present environment, where our demands are just and an anticipation existed that a reset of the relationship with the US would end some of the old animosity and a fairer balance would be achieved, the aftermath of the Chicago conference and the US harping the same old tune is a colossal disappointment. The Pakistan government sticking to its stand, sanctioned by a unanimous parliamentary vote, is the correct way to proceed. Pakistan's demands are fair and deserve to be met.