Envoys' conference

As expected, the two-day envoys conference has proved to be the temporising saucer that moderates the hot tea poured from the cup; it has counselled forbearance and restraint as Pakistan undertakes an exercise to revisit and review its relationship with the United States. Of course, the entire Pakistani nation is seething, rightly, with anger over the murderous Nato raid on the Salala security posts, forcing the government to scale down the co-operative alliance with the US-led coalition forces in Afghanistan. On the advice of the Defence Committee of Cabinet (DCC), the government has suspended Nato supplies through Pakistan, repossessed the Shamsi airbase and warned against any violation of its airspace, and its moves have the support of the broad masses. The American response, so far, to Pakistan military's claim that the night raid on the post was "intentional and provocative" is laconic and falls far short of the minimal that Washington should have done by now, including an unqualified apology. A verdict when the accused and the judge are two sides of the same coin always remains questionable. Then, there is an unsavoury history to the investigations by the US government into the not-so-infrequent incidents of 'friendly fire' by the American forces - invariably, criminals are either set free or get ridiculously short punishments disproportionate to the gravity of the crime. If the Pakistan military has refused to be part of the Nato and US inquiry commissions, it is amply justified. But having said this one finds it difficult not to concur with the envoys' advice to stay calm, mainly by avoiding precipitous decisions. The foreign policy of a country has to be long-term, and fully aligned to its lasting national interests. Pakistan cannot just throw out of the window its multi-faceted, decades-old partnership with the United States as a reaction to what looks like an incident. At best, and rightly so, the conference has underscored the need to fine-tune Pakistan's ties with the United States and other allies in this war on terror keeping in view the fact that Pakistan continues to face fresh challenges in the region. As eyes and ears of Pakistan in important capitals, the envoys are abreast with first-hand information on how their host governments perceive Pakistan's strong reaction to the Nato raid. Given their long experience of conducting the country's foreign policy and their insight into the international and regional developments, their advice on the future course of action by the government will hopefully receive due consideration while crafting Pakistan's response to the Nato raid incident. That Pakistan 'will not take it to point of no return' is undoubtedly a reflection of its government's position that while the raid is unacceptable it would not be allowed to become the tail to wag the dog, ie, the country's relationship with the United States. What the envoys' conference emphasised is essentially the need to fine-tune the relationship with the United States, and that calls for rewriting the 'terms of engagement'. Latest media reports suggest that US has decided to halt drone attacks. Pakistan may like to respond to this offer by relaxing the ban on the movement of supplies to Nato forces - a possibility indicated by some of the conference participants to the media. But, no less important is the need to reappraise relationship with the Karzai government that remains hostile despite Pakistan's best efforts. Copyright Business Recorder, 2011