Islamabad, May 15 (ANI): Pointing at Pakistan's stance on the reopening of NATO supply routes and its strenuous relations with the U.S., an editorial in a Pakistan daily has said "it is about time Pakistan recognises the need to abandon its double game and makes peace with its neighbours and thereby with itself".
The editorial says, after repeated American requests to open the supply routes were turned down by Pakistan, the U.S. issued threats of a withholding of foreign aid and international isolation, and bar Pakistan from participating in the NATO Chicago summit. And given Pakistan's vulnerability on both counts, it has finally realised that the time has come to reconsider.
The U.S. 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 turned up the heat, the editorial states.
The U.S.-Pakistan-Afghanistan Tripartite Commission had recently met in Islamabad to discuss the future modalities of cross-border security. According to the editorial, the tone and tenor of this the meeting is being seen as a turning point. The general perception is that the opening of NATO supply routes is on the cards.
It further says that 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, the editorial states.
It adds that 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. (ANI)
|
|
Comments:
