News
Thursday, April 19, 2012
Analysts say Pak needs policy for US presence in Afghanistan* Bad patch in Pak-US relations helped rationalise bilateral discourse
Staff Report
ISLAMABAD: Americans are not leaving Afghanistan and Pakistan needs a policy keeping in view their long-term presence in the region, which has become a cockpit of multinational rivalries, said analysts and experts at a discussion organised by the Institute of Regional Studies (IRS) on Wednesday.
Dr Tanvir Ahmad Khan argued the US viewed Pakistan as a weak client state that should obey its dictates. “That is why the US wants Pakistan to secure American interests in Afghanistan and not obstruct Indian ambitions of becoming a regional power to counter Chinese influence,” Khan said. He said that after the terrorist attacks in Afghanistan, the US started a maligning campaign against the Pakistan Army and its premier intelligence agency, the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), through media. “Pakistan is not a hostile country to America. Pak-US relations are improving and the bad patch in the relations has helped rationalise the bilateral discourse and is likely to eliminate idealistic expectations for future relations between the two countries,” Khan said. He said there were still irritants in the Pak-US relations, like the drone attacks – which he believed would not come to an end any time soon – and nuclear issue, as well as Pakistan’s overtures towards other countries like China, Iran, and Russia that would most probably be viewed with disapproval in Washington. Khan stressed the need for Pak-US relations to shift from its current strategic focus to a more people-centric and economic focus. He also urged the US to play its role in bringing India and Pakistan closer. Khan was of the view that the war in Afghanistan had dented US policy of bringing India and Pakistan closer. He criticised the Indo-US nuclear deal, saying it would exacerbate the nuclear arms race in the region. Defence analyst Lt Gen (r) Talat Masood said the US was bringing India and Pakistan closer as a by-product of its policy to keep India focused on China and Pakistan on militancy and extremism. He was of the view that the major difference between Pakistan and the US was on the issue of militancy. According to Masood, Pakistan considered extremists and militants as a constant element in Pakistani society for some time to come – that was why it wanted to evolve a solution to coexist with them – while the US wanted Pakistan to crack hard on them.
German embassy Charge de Affaires Stephan Roken attributed the Pakistani media’s obsession with covering even the least important aspects of US foreign policy to Pakistan’s low level of self-confidence. He said that Germany wanted Pakistan to be a self-confident international player.
Ambassador Khalid Mahmood stressed the need for Pakistan and the US to cooperate in the field of energy. Ambassador BA Malik said that Pakistan’s real enemy was militancy and extremism and not the US. He also disagreed with the perception that the US had lost the war in Afghanistan. US embassy Deputy Political Counselor John Hill appreciated the expectations for objectivity in the Pak-US relations with the recent review of the bilateral relations by the Parliamentary Committee on National Security (PCNS).
Courtesy www.dailytimes.com.pk