This is with reference to a news item (on 30.7.2008) regarding import of 5000 MW of electricity from Tajikistan and Kirgizistan. Representatives of the three countries and potential donors (WB, IDB, ADB) are likely to meet on August 4 in Islamabad to discuss modalities for the proposed project. It is feared that the American envoys in Islamabad, through use of their considerable influence, will not allow the scheme to go ahead. The US authorities are pressing hard through WB officials to pass the transmission line through Kunduz, Salang pass and Nangarhar province of Afghanistan. That area, though, is prone to violence and disturbances, which might interrupt work at a later stage. The US diplomats and WB circles are somehow not comfortable with the safest possible route from Afghanistan to Pakistan, via the Wakhan-Chitral-Chakdara corridor where uninterrupted work on the project will be guaranteed. It is for the third time that US is interfering in the energy agreements of Pakistan with neighbouring countries, i.e. Iran, Tajikistan and Kirgizistan. About time we recognised our own interest and acted like an independent state. -BASHIR HUSSAIN AZAD, Chitral, via e-mail, August 2.