Washington, Sept 2(ANI): Pakistan's security establishment has been playing a double game in the war on terror since 9/11, Stephen Tankel, a visiting scholar at the Carnegie Endowment, where his research focuses on insurgency, terrorism, and the evolution of non-state armed groups, has said.
"The security establishment continues to play a double game and this has been happening since 9/11," The Carnegie Endowment for International Peace quoted Tankel, as saying in a question-and-answer session.
"It is not just that the Pakistanis are continuing to support some outfits and aren't doing some of the things that the United States would like them to do. It is also important to remember that the United States is getting assistance in certain areas-it hasn't completely ceased," he added.
Tankel, whose new book, Storming the World Stage: The Story of Lashkar-e-Taiba, will be published this year, noted that supplies continue to transit through Pakistan into Afghanistan even though counterterrorism cooperation has suffered since the Raymond Davis affair and particularly the Osama bin Laden raid.
"So as bad as it is right now, the relationship could certainly decline further. Will the double game continue? Absolutely. But that means that the United States is getting some cooperation, it's just not getting nearly as much as it would like," he added.
Tankel was of the view that the US civilian aid to Pakistan should continue, but the military aid package needs to be restructured.
"While the United States may feel that it has the right to dictate the terms of the aid package, Pakistan disagrees. I'm not suggesting that there shouldn't be metrics, that aid shouldn't be conditioned, but rather that we may have a more fruitful relationship if the United States and Pakistan negotiated what those indicators should be. This could lead to a scaling back of aid, but that's something both sides need to work out together," he said. (ANI)
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