Daily Times

The US-Pakistan-Afghanistan Tripartite Commission met in Islamabad on Sunday to discuss the future modalities of cross-border security. The meeting is being termed an important development in the efforts to thaw the ice between the US and Pakistan. The Commission developed an understanding that monitoring cross-border violations is the responsibility of all the three forces. The tone and tenor of this meeting is being seen as a turning point. The general perception is that the opening of NATO supply routes is on the cards. Today’s meeting of the Defence Committee of the Cabinet (DCC) might give a much-needed breather to the tense relations between the two countries by opening these routes. The US and Pakistan had fallen apart on a number of issues in 2011 but the Salala incident, when 24 Pakistani soldiers were killed on the Pak-Afghan border in an air strike by the NATO/ISAF forces, turned up the heat. The Parliamentary Commission on National Security (PCNS) was convened to realign the country’s terms of engagement with the US post-Salala. Its recommendations included an insistence on stoppage of drone strikes and an apology for the Salala incident. And these two conditions were linked with the opening of the NATO supply routes, blocked since Salala. Washington rejected both the apology and stopping the drone strikes. When dialogue and repeated American requests to open the supply routes were turned down by Pakistan in turn, the threat of a withholding of foreign aid and international isolation through denial of Pakistan attending the NATO Chicago summit or in future any NATO forums loomed large. Given our vulnerability on both counts, Pakistan has finally realised that the time has come to reconsider.

Reports say the Obama administration had decided in February this year to apologise for the Salala incident. Our foreign office however, insisted on leaving the issue pending until the PCNS delivered its recommendations. By the time that transpired, the US position had hardened, with US Special Representative Marc Grossman, according to media reports, criticising Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar for being inexperienced and difficult to work with. As if all this was not serious enough, US Senator Dianne Feinstein has accused Pakistan of harbouring the Taliban, making the task of defeating them that much harder. This is hardly the first time Pakistan has been accused of providing safe havens to the Taliban while the Pakistani military refuses to move against them. Even the improvised explosive devices (IEDs) used by the Taliban in Afghanistan against NATO have been traced back to Pakistan. Under these circumstances, the chances of a peaceful Afghanistan after 2014 when most of the NATO forces would be pulled out remain slim. Pakistan’s hegemonic desire to control the post-2014 Afghan political and security landscape could implode in its face. Putting its eggs in the Taliban basket and allowing their brand of retrograde politics to be imposed in Afghanistan once again, as is feared amongst others by Senator Feinstein, could cost Pakistan a great deal, including the possibility that any post-2014 civil war in Afghanistan would inevitably have its spillover effects on Pakistan. In the event of the Afghan Taliban coming to power in Kabul again, the Pakistani Taliban too would be strengthened and consolidate their safe havens on Afghan soil to carry on cross-border attacks against Pakistan. It is about time Pakistan recognises the need to abandon its double game and makes peace with its neighbours and thereby with itself. *