"President
Asif Ali President Ten PercentZardari
... sticky-fingered husband of the late Benazir Bhutto ...
has said that after Pakistain has followed the democratic course for re-engagement with the United States ..., it was now the turn of the US... to help Pakistain in reaching closure on Salala," said a statement issued by the presidency after Mr Zardari's meeting with a US delegation led by Special Envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistain Marc Grossman.
President Zardari went to the extent of indicating willingness to restore NATO
...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A cautionary tale of cost-benefit analysis....
supply lines under new terms in a bid to get the apology as quid pro quo, but the Americans appeared to be uncompromising.
"We have already initiated an inter-agency consultation process and broad parameters have been developed for an agreement on Isaf/NATO supplies through Pakistain," Mr Zardari said.
Instead of apologising, the Americans want Pakistain to settle for invitation to Chicago Summit in return for the reopening of ground supply routes.
Other officials engaged in dialogue with the US for rebooting ties also said that the US reluctance to apologise had stymied the normalisation process and the first round of talks in Islamabad ended without making any headway.
The Nov 26 attack on the Salala post threw Pakistain-US ties, which had already been weighed down by the challenging events of 2011, into a tailspin and Pakistain reacted by ordering revision of terms of engagement with Washington, suspending NATO supply routes and evicting the Americans from the Shamsi airbase.
On completion of a protracted review process, parliament sought apology and punishment for those responsible for the deadly strike in addition to other demands, including cessation of drone attacks and cutting down American footprint in Pakistain.
The US has already refused to negotiate on drone strikes, leaving Pakistain to push for alternatives that could at least satisfy its illusory sovereignty concerns.
President Zardari made mention of this during his meeting and said: "Drone attacks are highly counter-productive in the war against cut-throats ... both sides should consider setting up a framework of mechanism to find mutually acceptable alternatives."
The US has also reneged on its commitment to apologise for the Salala incident. The US, officials said, had communicated to Pakistain during the London meeting between Secretary of States Hillary Clinton
... sometimes described as
The Woman to Call at 3 a.m.and at other times as Mrs. Bill, never as
Another Richelieu...
and Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar that both civilian and military leadership would apologise. Gen Martin Dempsey, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, was to apologise on behalf of the military and Secretary Clinton on behalf of the politicianship.
But that couldn't happen for a variety of reasons, chiefly President Barack Obama's
Because I won...
domestic political compulsions.