...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A cautionary tale of cost-benefit analysis....
forces from Afghanistan next year, with the issue of a residual US presence in that country still a contentious matter between Washington and the Karzai government. Pakistain is considered by all, including the US, as critical to restoring peace in Afghanistan, particularly in the wake of the withdrawal of foreign forces. Pakistain too is, or at least should be, a stakeholder with a deep interest in its own right in peace in Afghanistan, which is likely to affect directly the situation vis-Ã -vis terrorism inside Pakistain itself. Within this framework, the discussions the US Secretary of State had with Prime Minister
Nawaz Sharif... served two non-consecutive terms as prime minister, heads the Pakistain Moslem League (Nawaz). Noted for his spectacular corruption, the 1998 Pak nuclear test, border war with India, and for being tossed by General Musharraf...
and the newly installed COAS General Raheel Sharif have by and large been kept under wraps for their sensitivity, except what was considered kosher for sharing with the public. The information put out was not surprising, given that the respective positions and concerns of both sides are no secret.
Whereas Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif told Mr Hagel that the drone strikes were counterproductive and hurting the government's efforts to counter terrorism, by which he meant that the peace dialogue his government wants to conduct with the snuffies was being affected (e.g. the killing of Hakeemullah Mehsud, chief of the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistain, on the eve of hoped for talks), the US side stated that Mr Hagel wants to tackle the frictions between his country and Pakistain head on.
Further, Hagel pressed for keeping the supply routes to and from Afghanistan open otherwise the US Congress may withhold aid to Pakistain. This demand and threat must be seen in the light of the withdrawn statement by Hagel's aides that the supply route was about to reopen.
He also reiterated the long standing US demand that Pakistain stop giving safe havens to the Afghan Taliban on its soil.
Nawaz Sharif repeated his government's support for the Afghan reconciliation process, implying the US side too should perhaps abandon its ambiguity on the issue and come out in support of Pakistain's reconciliation efforts with its own terrorists.
Chuck Hagel's aides were forced to withdraw their premature and overly optimistic statement about the restoration of the supply lines because the Pakistain Tehrik-e-Insaaf (PTI) of Imran Khan
... aka
Taliban Khan, who ain't the brightest knife in the national drawer...
, whose stoppage of NATO trucks by threatening violence against the truck drivers had caused Washington to announce a stoppage through Pakistain out of concern for the safety of the drivers, had announced a continuation of its disruption of the supply route from Torkham. Since the PTI leads the government in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa
... formerly NWFP, still Terrorism Central...
, its cadres manning the 'check posts' to stop NATO trucks are in no fear of being prevented by the police from their 'vigilante' actions. Arguably though, the national highways and the question of allowing or stopping the supply routes lie within the purview of the federal government. But Nawaz Sharif's PML-N government has been playing on the back foot, presumably so as not to be seen as taking up the cudgels on behalf of the west, particularly the US. But this 'softly, softly' approach has meant the provincial (PTI) tail has been allowed to wag the federal dog. If the Imran Khan-led PTI's stoppage of the US/NATO supply lines costs the country bilateral and possibly multilateral aid, these wages will have been paid squarely because of Imran Khan's 'sins'.