Islamabad, Nov. 3 (ANI): Whether Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney or President Barack Obama win the White House race, Pakistan should not expect a 'pendulum swing' in terms of policy changes, according to an editorial in a Pakistani newspaper.
According to the Express Tribune, Romney took a firm stand on Pakistan during the debate, saying it was not time 'to divorce a nation (Pakistan) on Earth that has 100 nuclear weapons and is on the way to double that at some point'.
He, however, endorsed drone strikes, saying that he supports the Obama administration's policy on this key issue.
According to the report, ties between the US and Pakistan during the Obama administration have been rocky, marred by a series of events that threatened to derail the relationship altogether.
The administration's drone strike campaign became the centerpiece of its strategy in Pakistan, breeding anti-American sentiment in the country, while the Raymond Davis affair, Abbottabad raid and the Salala strike were among the countless unpleasant incidents that brought ties to a standstill earlier this year, the report said.
According to the report, Shamila Chaudhry, an analyst at the Eurasia Group and former director for Pakistan and Afghanistan on the White House National Security Council, said that while Obama's accomplishment on decimating and dismantling al Qaeda in the region has been significant, for foreign policy aficionados the heavy emphasis on counterterrorism in the foreign policy arena has been a disappointment.
"Many think that the pursuit of counterterrorism objectives has been at the cost of the relationship, and I think that's true to a certain extent. But I don't think the president would have done anything differently or could have done, she said.
"Everything happened behind the scene; it was between individuals and personalities, between President Bush and President Musharraf. What he [President Obama] did was take that policy out of the darkness with a bluntness that no one expected. And I think that was disappointing to many but I think it had to be done," she added.
Meanwhile, former ambassador Touqir Hussain, currently a senior visiting fellow at Johns Hopkins University's School of Advanced International Studies, said that trouble-free relations are impossible with the US fighting two separate wars in the region, referring to the war in Afghanistan and the broader war on terrorism.
Shamila, however, believed that, whether it is a Romney administration or another Obama administration, one should not expect a pendulum swing in terms of policy changes.
"The policy and relationship is going through a transition in the political establishment of the US, and I think the same thing is happening in Pakistan and that's how we can rationalise a lot of the disappointment in Pakistan and how many Pakistanis feel that Obama hasn't performed in defending Pakistan's interests," Shamila added. (ANI)
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