The US Ambassador, Cameron Munter, has called for "renewal" of relationship his country has with Pakistan, which of late has run into rough waters. "America and Pakistan need to work together on common issues, and we have many. I want to say ...it remains vital to us both to see progress in Pakistan and the region, in the interest of peace, stability and prosperity of Pakistan and its neighbours.
In all these areas, I stress one word: renewal". The media covering the ambassador found him abounding with optimism, as he said he is 'more optimistic' about the future of Pak-US relationship than when he first landed here late last year as US envoy. Given he had just arrived after an extensive visit back home and must have been more closely briefed by the State Department and other US agencies Ambassador Munter was expected to say things more precisely, as he was speaking at the Institute of Strategic Studies and his audience included researchers, strategists and analysts. Such openness on his part was all the more necessary when both Pakistan and the United States are intensely engaged in repairing the bilateral co-operative relationship that took serious battering in the wake of patently dubious CIA work in Pakistan, both in terms of spying and drones.
But he happened to be vague and tentative, as against the imperative to redefine the bilateral relationship more correctly. The time when General Musharraf agreed to give the United States unqualified support - he was perhaps more interested in keeping Washington unruffled over his military coup than the demise of Taliban government in Afghanistan - has passed and emerging realities have sharpened Pakistan's susceptibilities of what some call 'American designs in the region'.
The chasm of distrust between the two sides has critically widened since the Raymond Davis affair and absolutely mindless CIA-operated drone strike on a peaceful tribal Jirga on the day following the questionable deal that led to immediate release of the CIA contractor. For quite some time, the Pakistani counterparts of the CIA had the inklings of the so-called diplomats but the way it came to light was simply indigestible.
When we juxtapose Ambassador Munter's mantra for the need to look ahead instead of repenting the past with the White House biannual report sent to the US Congress we detect a critical perceptional mismatch between Washington and Islamabad. Once bitten twice shy, Pakistan would now like to be selective and not go the whole nine yards with the United States. Through various contacts that have come about since the Raymond Davis imbroglio, Washington has been conveyed certain red lines that Islamabad would not cross in any case. On the diplomatic front, Pakistan would like to make sure that the Indian presence in Afghanistan does not become a Trojan horse for anti-Pakistan subversive forces. On the military front, Pakistan would like CIA to suspend drone attacks; and if these have to be carried out it should be a Pakistani operation or in concert with it.
But, more importantly, Pakistani agencies are chary of rather large and unwarranted presence of CIA and its numerous contractors in various disguises at different, and often unrelated, places. The mystery as to why the US needs such a huge CIA presence in Pakistan gets thicker as important newspapers have quoted Pakistani army sources as saying 'Washington's real aim in Pakistan is to neutralise the nation's nuclear arsenal'. In this backdrop, what makes Ambassador Munter's claim that 'Pak-US relationship is not in the intensive care unit,' we would like to know? And what should we say of his assertion that the US is not leaving Afghanistan and 2014 is not the year of US withdrawal?
Is it a refrain to caution Pakistan that you better reconcile to live with our presence in the region? Apparently, the US officialdom is caught in profound confusion after its incoherent action following the double murder by CIA operator in Lahore as to what should be its future course of action in Pakistan. But, in sharp contrast to this confused state of mind, Islamabad appears abundantly clear that for it the only choice is to protect and preserve its national interest.