Once again hopes of Pakistan and United States writing new chapters of goodwill in their ties have been dashed and that too within two weeks of a meeting between Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and US President Barack Obama.
Killing of Hakimullah Mehsud, chief of the Tehreek-e-Taleban Pakistan (TTP) in a US drone attack last Friday has raised political temperature in Islamabad. His death has dramatically changed the entire scenario and caused considerable bitterness in Pakistan. In the aftermath of Mehsud’s death, use of tough language by Sharif and Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar has put Washington on the defensive. Despite the fact that Mehsud’s death dealt a major blow to the proposed peace process, the incident has united political forces of all hues in Pakistan. Almost all the main opposition parties have come out in support of the government, which is a very rare occurrence in Pakistan.
In the lower house of the Parliament, the National Assembly, a resolution to demand an end to drone attacks, was held back for want of correct usage of words to criticize the United States, but deputies in the house, were vehement in their speeches against Obama’s insistence to continue with his anti-Taleban plans. Sharif, who is otherwise known for his careful selection of words, also seemed to have lost patience. His frustration was evident from his address at the concluding ceremony of the armed forces periodical war games that was attended by foreign diplomats and military dignitaries.
Obviously, Sharif chose the occasion to convey to the world “gone are the days when Pakistan’s foreign policy was dictated over telephone calls from abroad.”
He did not stop at that and went on to assert, “Pakistan has full authority to decide its policies,” and even indirectly made it clear to the US that “if people don’t seem to help us wipe off the menace of terrorism from our country, they should not create hurdles in our way.”
At a hurriedly summoned Cabinet meeting earlier this week, Sharif had declared in unambiguous terms “negotiation and peace efforts will not be derailed.”
Leader of Opposition in the National Assembly Syed Khurshid Shah of the Pakistan People’s Party was at the forefront of the campaign, followed by the volatile Tehreek-i-Insaf chief, Imran Khan, who went one step forward to end his differences with his archrival in Khyber Pakhtunkhawa province, Maulana Fazlur Rehman of the JUI, on the subject.
Khan, however, served warning on the Sharif administration to do something concrete by Nov. 20 or he would launch a campaign to stop NATO supplies to Afghanistan through the northern KPK province where his party has been in control since the general election in May this year. Pakistani leaders are happy that Afghan President Hamid Karzai has also criticized the US for its ill-timed move to kill Mehsud.
Federal minister Chaudhry Nisar had earlier disclosed that the day the TTP leader was killed, Pakistan government was ready to dispatch a team of religious leaders to hold talks with Taleban about the peace process.
Whether things would change for better, is difficult to say, but neither side would want the relations to deteriorate. They may find out some way to mend fences.
