'Pak has tied foreign policy to public passions'

Islamabad, May 8 (ANI): Pakistan's folly is that it has tied foreign policy to public passions and is now unable to employ flexible diplomacy where needed, stated an editorial in a Pakistan daily.

The editorial has called Pakistan Defence Minister Ahmad Mukhtar's statement that if Pakistan did not come up with a clear position on the resumption of the NATO supply route, it might face sanctions under the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) resolution to which Pakistan agreed, as 'blunt', adding that Sanctions, if imposed, will be tough for Pakistan, given the fact that its economy is in an oxygen tent and the oxygen comes mostly from the US and its allies, the editorial said.

Sanctions are bad for any country because they signal the extent to which the country has been isolated from the international community.

It further said Pakistan will be backed by China and no universal sanctions will be imposed. But even unilateral sanctions imposed by the U.S. will damage Pakistan as the country is dependent on direct assistance from the US and on aid from multinational institutions in shape of concessional loans.

Pakistan has been in defiance mode since November 2011 when the Salala incident took place, and other incidents which included the killing of Osama bin Laden in May 2011 and the earlier incident of a CIA contractor killing two Pakistanis in Lahore.

The government subsequently decided to throw its foreign policy to parliament, which had already passed impractical strictures on the U.S., the editorial said. (ANI)