The Americans sitting in the safety of their capital, are discussing legislation that seems to be heavily tilted against Pakistan. In recently tabled bills, in order to fix the situation in Afghanistan, American legislators feel it their duty to punish Pakistan.

The war in Afghanistan has not ended because of poor policy choices and the lack of attention of American leaders towards this issue. Senator John McCain has also blamed both President Obama and President Trump for overlooking the issue and further aggravating the situation, which is more difficult to deal with now.

Since the start of the year, there has been pressure on Pakistan from many diplomatic fronts, and it is mainly because of the rampant accusations that Pakistan houses terrorists and is involved in promoting the terrorist ideology and network in the region. The narrative has been promoted by Iran, Afghanistan and India. USA also joined the bandwagon and pledged to teach Pakistan a lesson if the support does not stop. Such cries from America are akin to a victim being punished, as Pakistani people have had to face the worst of terrorism and the worst of America’s attitude problem.

Pakistan in this time was constantly pushing for integration and coordinated effort on part of the countries of the region. On several occasions and platforms, representatives of Pakistan have highlighted the need for working together and the drawback of blaming one country for the mess of several others.

It seems due to Senator McCain’s efforts, the US government has outlined a balanced strategy towards ridding the region of the Afghan war debacle, and this is the best we can hope for while a trigger-happy lot seems to make up the American cabinet. The plan now includes holding regional dialogues between Afghanistan, Pakistan, China, India, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, and other nations to help Afghanistan regain the sovereignty of its land.

The US has also threatened to impose sanctions on Pakistan if the support to the Haqqani network is continued. Our leaders now need to up their game, implement the dormant National Action Plan (NAP) with full force. American accusations will only get worse with time as they realise they cannot maintain their stubborn occupation of Afghanistan.