*Analysis: Pakistan is still in denial and living in a delusional world, it has to make up it's mind to fully control and administrate FATA tribal area and not to hand it over to Islamic extremist pro-Taliban group., otherwise there is no solution to ending Afghan conflict. (DTN Defense-Technology News)
(NSI News Source Info) WASHINGTON - April 11, 2009: Pakistan’s new found defiance against the United States was on full display in Washington on Thursday evening when Ambassador Husain Haqqani urged Americans not to attach ‘intrusive’ conditions to the aid they offer. ‘Once again there’s talk of fixing Afghanistan and Pakistan.
‘Once again there’s talk of fixing Afghanistan and Pakistan. Please do not fix us,’ said the ambassador in a joint appearance with his Afghan counterpart at a Washington think-tank, the Atlantic Council.
‘Once again there’s talk of fixing Afghanistan and Pakistan. Please do not fix us,’ said the ambassador in a joint appearance with his Afghan counterpart at a Washington think-tank, the Atlantic Council.Please do not fix us,’ said the ambassador in a joint appearance with his Afghan counterpart at a Washington think-tank, the Atlantic Council. ‘The world is not a problem for America to fix. The world is a place for the Americans to understand.’
He also defended the Inter-Services Intelligence Agency (ISI), an institution seen by civilian quarters in Islamabad as too intrusive and too politicized.
‘It is important that the institutions that are to be partners in this (anti-terrorism) effort do not start feeling under attack, whether it is ISI or the Pakistani military,’ he said.
‘Mistakes have been committed on all sides. But this lack of trust will be addressed by talking to us, not by beating down on us.’
Mr Haqqani said that the Pakistanis these days were very concerned about an ‘unbridled indictment’ of their security services, giving no credit to Pakistan for the efforts that have been made.
‘We lost a lot of people along the border with Afghanistan. We have become a major victim of terrorism. More Pakistanis have died as a result of terrorist incidents in the last two years than in any other country.’
Diplomatic observers noted that Pakistan’s new defiant posture is not an instant flare up of sentiments on the part of the Pakistani leaders.
The change of mood followed a collective decision of the government and the security establishment to adopt a tough posture.
No blank cheques
When President Barack Obama announced his new strategy for Pakistan and Afghanistan late last month, telling Islamabad not to expect blank cheques from Washington, Ambassador Haqqani welcomed it as a step in the right direction.
He said Washington had consulted closely with Islamabad on formulating the policy and it was not formed in the clouds.
But on Thursday, he appeared offended with President Obama’s reprimand that the US will no more write blank cheques. ‘We will not accept a blank cheque, nor would we write any,’ said the Pakistani envoy.
Aid package
Mr Haqqani, who until Thursday was all praise for a $7.5 billion aid package, trumpeting its introduction in the US Congress last week as a show of support for democracy in Pakistan, appeared much less enthusiastic while talking about the same package at the seminar.
Referring to the US government’s decision to dole out hundreds of billions of dollars to mismanaged corporations and risk-taking Wall Street brokers, the ambassador said Washington should re-think its priorities.
‘A company at the verge of failure is quite clearly able to get a bigger bailout than a nation that has been accused of failure,’ Mr Haqqani said. ‘That's something that in this town needs a review.’ He said investments in Pakistan's schools and infrastructure to help battle Al Qaeda and home-grown terrorists would be worth the money.
Pakistan and Afghanistan, where the US is re-focusing efforts to fight the resurging Taliban and terrorism, deserve more than ‘some failed insurance company or some car company whose achievement is that they couldn't make cars that they could sell,’ he said.
Mr Haqqani said Pakistan will ask for its own ‘Marshall Plan’ — up to $30 billion in aid from its allies at the ‘Friends of Pakistan’ meeting in Tokyo on April 17.
Restrictions on Pakistan
The Pakistani ambassador was also unhappy with the metrics and conditions attached to the aid to Pakistan, saying that they were too ‘intrusive.’
He urged Congress to revisit the bill and remove some of the recommended restrictions. Pakistan, he said, the importance of using the money accountably and effectively.
‘But there is a difference between accountability and intrusiveness. And that is something that needs to be understood,’ he said.
Regional contact group
The ambassador also opposed President Obama’s suggestion to form a regional contact group for fighting extremists in the Pak-Afghan region, saying that such groups had been formed in the past as well but they did not succeed.
‘It is much better for us to be able to engage bilaterally with various regional powers instead of trying to create a new institutional mechanism which could run into some kind of logjam because there will be too many people, too many ideas.’
He explained that one of the reasons behind the many problems in the border areas of Pakistan and Afghanistan since 1979 is that too many external actors have been involved. ‘Al Qaeda is an external actor.
Al Qaeda is not something that is indigenous to Pakistan and Afghanistan. These are people who came from outside, with an outside idea.’
Drone attacks
The ambassador said that Pakistan was not happy with the drone attacks because they did not show sufficient regard for Pakistan’s national sovereignty. ‘It will be easier for Pakistanis to accept the American technology being used to take out terrorists if it is done in partnership with Pakistan.’
There’s also concern on collateral damage, he said, explaining that the loss of life angers the people and provides opportunity to al-Qaeda for waging its propaganda.
‘The point is working out a mechanism whereby our concerns about sovereignty and collateral damage are addressed. We consider the US as partner and we expect them to consider us as partners,’ he said.
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