All the efforts of US special envoy to Afghanistan-Pakistan, Marc Grossman to streamline US-Pakistan ties, came to a naught when a bill moved in the US Congress prohibiting financial assistance to Islamabad stipulating that it must cooperate with the US in the fight against terrorism and takes action against Haqqani network and prevent them in carrying out cross-border attacks into neighbouring countries. In a chain of events spread over the last 15 months or so, starting from Raymond Davis issue to unilateral raid on OBL’s compound in Abbottabad on May 2 by US Commandoes to infamous Nov 26 incident where Nato fighter jets killed 24 Pakistani troops, the US-Pak relations took a nose-dive. In each of these cases, Pakistan had reason to feel that the US had violated its sovereignty, thus making it difficult to sustain the strategic cooperation that both countries acknowledge is vital to winning the war in Afghanistan. As a country that has been severely affected by serious losses in terms of human resource, devastation of valuable infrastructure, political infightings, uncertainty, it remains committed to extend unflinching support in strengthening international cooperation working for the elimination of terrorist network. Even then, Pakistan has been under constant pressure to “do more”.
Despite divergence in views on the both sides, Pakistan would feel far less secure if existing means of cooperation were further complicated. Both the countries fighting common war against terror will have more to gain by finding common ground to rebuild this partnership. The strategists believe that neither side can afford to go to extremes. Some of the areas where America can help are; a) support Iran-Pakistan gas pipeline to cater energy crises, b) construction of large dams, c) poverty alleviation regimes, d) rehabilitation and developmental schemes in tribal area by developing “ROZs”, e) achieving MDGs-2015 like, population control, higher education, human resource development, etc, f) switching of US economic ties with Pakistan from aid to trade which is so crucial to help strengthen a stable, peaceful and democratic Pakistan. Some of the feature which Pakistan should do: a) Pakistan must participate in the upcoming Nato summit in Chicago aimed to discuss Afghan endgame, b) Pakistan should not delay its decision to reopen Nato supply routes if it wants to have some strategic role in the post withrawal-2014 Afghanistan, c) steps should be taken to avoid untoward Salala type incident on both sides of Pakistan-Afghanistan borders, d) we should take concrete steps to satisfy international community that the tribal areas are no longer a safe haven for terrorists, e) ensure that tribal belt is not the launching pad for attacks on the Nato troops inside Afghanistan.
KHALID KHOKHAR,
 Islamabad, May 15.