A matter of concern

Pakistan has 'cautiously' (actually, reluctantly) welcomed the signing of Bilateral Security Agreement (BSA) by Afghanistan and the US, says a press report. Notably, the BSA includes a provision - based on October 2013 accord between former Afghan president Hamid Karzai and the US - under which the US would not protect Afghanistan from external attack. That was supposed to assuage Islamabad's concerns. Yet, it did not help; reservations continued to be expressed. What has changed now is said to be a clarification offered by the US that "the provisions [of BSA] related to counter-terrorism operations relate only to operations within Afghanistan." The clarification is unlikely to allay Islamabad's real apprehensions.
The stated reason is not so convincing considering that with or without BSA and despite Islamabad's protests, drone strikes - key component of US' counter-terrorism operations - against terrorism suspects inside Pakistan are not to stop. Just last Sunday, a US drone attack in South Waziristan's Wana area killed four people, including two Arab militants. At her weekly media briefing, Foreign Office spokesperson averred that "as regards BSA, Afghanistan is a sovereign country, it is their right to conclude agreements with any country," but Pakistan's discomfort with the agreement is more than obvious. It is about the part of the agreement which allows the US forces to maintain nine bases in Afghanistan. Some of these bases are to be located in provinces close to the country's borders with Pakistan and Iran. The ostensible objective, of course, is to facilitate counter-terrorism operations against al Qaeda remnants and other violent extremists. But they could also be used for the furtherance of other purposes, such as taking out this country's nuclear assets.
Although officially the US has consistently been expressing satisfaction over Pakistan's nuclear security practices, unofficial reports suggest otherwise. Many in the US and other Western countries, citing terrorist attacks during the recent years on military installations, have been raising the spectre of Pakistan's nuclear weapons falling into the hands of radical Islamists. The US is said to have prepared a contingency plan too, to finish off this country's nuclear assets. On its part, Pakistan is fully compliant with its international obligations, joining also different nuclear security initiatives and processes led by the US. As for the problem of extremism, the FO spokesperson pointed out that a decisive military operation against militants is proceeding very successfully. It can achieve better and quicker results if the US-backed government on the other side takes action to intercept and eliminate fleeing militants. So far inaction on the Afghan side has been worrying enough, new US bases close to our borders will be an added source of anxiety.