THE Parliaments National Security Committee has concluded that the Indo-US nuclear deal has destabilised the strategic balance in the region and the growing Indian presence in Afghanistan is also adding to the instability and chaos along the Western border areas of Pakistan. The Committee has called on the US to sensitise itself to the concerns and interests of Pakistan, especially in relation to India. These are facts that speak clearly for themselves but it is good that the Committee has reiterated them. The India factor in the prevailing violence and destabilisation of the region is a crucial one and since the US has a strategic-military relationship with India, it needs to ensure that this relationship does not undermine Pakistans national interests. The Committee has correctly called on the US to review its India policy and clarify its position on some of the issues raised. An end to drone attacks has also been demanded along with an end to the questionable activities of the private US security companies. One hopes the Parliament will take up the Committees demands and recommendations and send a clear message to the US on Pakistans red lines. Interestingly, it has also now been revealed that the US and UN representatives have been interacting with members of the Taliban Shura in Afghanistan as well as in Dubai and in many of these meetings the Indians have played a role. But from the Pakistani perspective what is important is that these meetings definitively expose the myth of the Quetta Shura propagated by the US, its Western allies and the Western media. Clearly if all the meetings with the Taliban leaders and members of the Taliban Shura were being held in Afghanistan and in Dubai, then they could hardly be ensconced in Quetta or any other region of Pakistan. So all this time, this was just one more propaganda piece with which to pressurise Pakistan, and to seek a pretext for targeting a wider area within Pakistan with drones. Clearly the US is confused over what to do in Afghanistan. The confusion is becoming ever more evident with some declaring that they will have to talk to 'unsavoury persons in the process of dialoguing with the Taliban while Ms Clinton has declared that the US will not talk to the 'really bad guys Such absurdities will continue to come forth from the US side while they adjust to the reality that they have lost militarily in Afghanistan and have no alternative but to dialogue with the Taliban - at least those who are prepared to do so at this stage. The initiative has been taken away from the US. Pakistan, too, can win back the initiative from the US, if it can find the psychological strength to move on that count. Recent examples have proven that when Pakistan chooses to, it can assert its interest - be they in the Conference on Disarmament in Geneva or at the recent London Conference. It is time to move resolutely in terms of the US and India.