BEINING: Pakistani Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani says parliament
will meet soon to reassess its relations with the United States in the
wake of the November 26 deadly attack by NATO fighter jets and
helicopters on two border posts, killing 24 soldiers, Chinese Xinhua
news agency has reported.
The attack had caused widespread anger
across Pakistan and the country’s top civil and military leadership
took unexpected and important decisions to review its future
relationship with the U.S. , close supply lines for NATO forces in
Afghanistan, vacate a strategically important airbase in Balochistan
province from the U. S. military and to boycott the December 5 Bonn
Conference on Afghanistan’s future.
The decisions are considered
as a major setback in worsening Pakistan-U.S relations, which had been
under stress since February this year when an undercover CIA agent,
Raymond Davis, shot dead two Pakistani nationals in the eastern city of
Lahore. The documents and mobile phone data of Raymond Davis mobile had
unearthed a secret U.S. spy network in Pakistan, which prompted a call
from Pakistan to seek details about all American secret agents and their
activities in the country. Pakistan then had also asked the U.S. to
withdraw its spies and U.S. trainers.
The unilateral U.S.
military raid to kill Osama bin Laden in Abbottabad in May proved to be
another serious setback for the already strained relationship. Pakistan
had described the U.S. raid as violation of the country’s sovereignty.
The
U.S. had been trying to put its relationship with Pakistan on track
over the past few months but the last month U.S.-led NATO strike on
border posts on Pakistani soil near the Afghan border has caused a
severe blow to the uneasy relations.
The November 26 attack was
the 8th NATO strike on Pakistani posts in the last three years,
according to Pakistan army. A total of 72 Pakistani soldiers have been
killed in such NATO strikes, but the latest strike has prompted an
unprecedented angry reaction from the Pakistani military and civilian
leadership, which they have never shown before.
Apart from
closing the supply lines for nearly 150,000 NATO troops in Afghanistan,
this time Pakistan has also asked the U.S. to vacate the Shamsi airbase
in southwestern Balochistan province, which is near the border with
Afghanistan and Iran. The U.S. military has reportedly been using the
airbase for nearly 10 years to carry out military operations in
Afghanistan and for drone strikes in Pakistan’s tribal regions.
President
Asif Zardari reportedly rejected a request from the Foreign Minister of
the UAE, who flew to Islamabad just a few days after the NATO strike,
to withdraw the vacation decision or postpone the 15-day ultimatum for
the withdrawal from the air base.
Expecting no change in
Pakistan’s decision, the U.S. security personnel have now started to
evacuate from Shamsi airbase and a couple of days ago an American plane
arrived at the air base to bring back the U.S. personnel and equipment
deployed there. U.S. Ambassador to Pakistan has confirmed the
evacuation.
Pakistani leadership seems deeply perturbed over
refusal so far by the U.S. and NATO to tender apology over the deaths of
24 soldiers. Pakistani leaders are now openly saying that future
relations with the U.S. will be reviewed and new terms will be set for
the future cooperation with the U.S./NATO and ISAF. Pakistan has
rejected "regret" by the U.S. and NATO over the deaths of Pakistani
soldiers as insufficient. Pakistan says the NATO strike was intentional
as they violated a defined "Red Line".
Prime Minister Yusuf Raza
Gilani warned the United States in a CNN interview last month that
"business as usual (with the U.S.) will not be there" now. Gilani also
said that the only scenario in which the two countries could continue
their relation was if they worked on the principles of mutual respect,
which he said that Pakistan was not getting from the Americans at the
moment.
Pakistan had never been so tough on the U.S., but the
NATO’s killing of Pakistani soldiers in "unprovoked" raids brought the
government under tremendous pressure to review its relations with the
U.S. as enough is enough. The stand Pakistani leaders have shown since
the November 26 NATO strikes is very clear that they have now made mind
to review what the majority in Pakistan considers un-natural alliance
with the U.S.
Pakistan’s decision to close NATO supply line,
orders U.S. to vacate its airbase, boycott the Bonn Conference and
reject U.S. regret reflect the country’s seriousness to review its
relationship with the United States. This has been a long awaited call
from political parties, former diplomats, retired army generals, members
of civil society and media to review the country ’s foreign policy
towards Washington.
President Barrack Obama called President
Asif Zardari on Sunday and Secretary of State Hilary made calls to Prime
Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani and Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar to
soothe angry Pakistani leaders but the efforts have not worked. Despite
phone calls by President Obama and Clinton, several U.S. influential
lawmakers are sending negative messages and are calling for review of
the U.S. relations with Pakistan.
Now Pakistan is set to start
review of its relations with the U. S. in the coming days and parliament
would be summoned for this purpose. Important decisions after the NATO
attack have set tone for U.S. ties review. Foreign Ministry sources say
that Pakistan has called ambassadors from several important capitals to
seek their input for the new foreign policy and new relationship with
the U.S.. It is the hope of the majority of the Pakistanis that the
parliament will chalk out a relationship with the U.S. on the basis of
mutual respect in real terms and that Pakistan will never bow before
U.S. pressure. Online