Share this story!            

US backed Pakistan on North Waziristan deal

By Khalid Hasan

WASHINGTON: The Bush administration, which is now picking holes in the North Waziristan deal signed by Pakistan with tribal leaders, initially backed the decision that was made in consultation with Washington.

Daniel Markey, a former State Department specialist on South Asia for the Policy Planning Council, said in an interview here this week with the Council on Foreign Relations that the US was in accord with Pakistan’s decision. Asked if the Americans sympathised with Musharraf’s approach last year, he said, “Precisely”.

Markey said that when at Washington’s urging the Pakistan Army moved heavily into the tribal areas, it was realised before long that this was not working. According to him, “While it immediately paid some dividends, the Pakistani military took serious casualties and the longer they stayed, they began to be seen more and more as an occupying force.”

Markey said that when the Musharraf government decided that the strategy was not working and the US tended to agree, Pakistan needed in some way to go back to an earlier policy, and then try to “bump it up a little bit”. Pakistan wanted to go back to this earlier strategy of working through traditional mechanisms between political agents and tribal elders, but then try to improve the local security forces, so they would actually stand a chance against the larger terrorist and militant threats. The Pakistanis would then inject a certain degree of development and other types of assistance so the local population would not be so alienated. “The problem with this latest strategy is that in the near term, you have fairly weak local authorities with relatively poor security mechanisms at their disposal. They’re not capable of standing up against outside terrorists and the Taliban, and it doesn’t serve the US interests, at least in the short term, to allow these militants to continue to operate there.”

Asked why the US was feeling frustrated with Pakistan now, Markey replied, “What we’re finding is that despite the fact that he (Musharraf) may be correct in his assessment of the complexity of the problem, this new solution has a significant downside in terms of timing. It may be a reasonable approach to a long-term solution, but in the short term, this is not working.”

Replying to a question about the threat that if Pakistan does not play according to American wishes, Congress will cut off the aid the country is receiving, the former official said, “I don’t think the most responsible members of Congress would really significantly seek to cut assistance to Pakistan. Everybody recognised after 9/11 that you need to build a long-term partnership with Pakistan.”

Home | Main

Share this story!