IS it a repair job or recognition that an important relationship needs to be reset somehow amidst continuing and serious differences? Several US senators and the special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan shuttled between Islamabad and Rawalpindi over the weekend, but only the most perfunctory of details have been offered so far by Pakistani officials. Perhaps once the Senate delegation returns to the US, there will be some comment from the American side that may shed more light on what was discussed and what, if anything, was agreed. What can be assumed, from the identities of the visitors, is that Pakistan is trying to reach out to friendly or even businesslike elements in the US Congress, a centre of power that has become progressively more hostile towards Pakistan and its policy concerns. That is a sensible approach, given the hurdles Congress can create when it comes to a stable and relatively normal bilateral relationship between Pakistan and the US.
Yet, is Pakistan prepared to answer the questions that the outside world is asking of it? In terms of policy, the US once again appears to be seeing greater benefit in engaging India and a greater need to keep Afghanistan on side. Of Pakistan, the questions are familiar, though noticeably more insistent. Essentially, is Pakistan willing to take on anti-Afghan and anti-India militant groups that have found sanctuary and operate on Pakistani soil? When it comes to the Afghan Taliban and the Haqqani network, the space that Pakistan had while dialogue between the Afghan government and the Taliban appeared imminent is gone. While Pakistan can rightly point to the drone strike that killed Taliban leader Akhtar Mansour as the moment talks were undeniably scuttled, nothing has come to light since to suggest that Pakistan was near convincing the Taliban leader of the necessity and inevitability of talks. The US policy in Afghanistan may be muddled, but is the perceived Pakistani policy defensible? Foreign affairs adviser Sartaj Aziz’s willingness to differentiate between the so-called good Taliban and bad Taliban will not have gone unnoticed; and it is telling that the Foreign Office has made no effort to clarify the adviser’s statement.
Consider also that the backtracking on Pakistan’s approach internally towards militancy can have repercussions for what the country’s national security architects are trying to achieve vis-à-vis Afghanistan. Border management and ending anti-Pakistan sanctuaries in Afghanistan are essential to regional stability and Pakistan is correct to highlight those issues in talks with whoever has influence in Kabul with the Afghan government. But how sympathetic and inclined to cooperate will Afghanistan or the outside world really be without clarity of policy and firmness of action by Pakistan?http://www.dawn.com/news/1268914/us-senators-visit
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