Pakistan is urging America for solid trust building

Pakistan urged the United States on Thursday to foster the anti-terrorism partnership with it on the

basis of trust and sovereign equality, with its top diplomat in Washington cautioning against the notion

of attaching "intrusive" conditions to American assistance for his nation.

Pakistan’s state agency APP reports that in a "candid and frank" interaction with American and South Asian intelligentsia, Ambassador Husain Haqqani reaffirmed Islamabad‘s resolve to wipe out terrorism in cooperation with the international community butemphasized respect for Pakistan‘s sovereignty and its state institutions.

He said Pakistan‘s concerns on the issue of U.S. drone attacks against militant targets on its side of the Afghan border must be addressed and its security and intelligence organizations must not be subjected to a media criticism campaign.

"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—– the lack of trust will be addressed by talking to us not by beating down on us," Haqqani stated at the Atlantic Council.

Appearing jointly with his Afghan counterpart Said Tayeb Jawad for a discussion on the Obama Administration’s way forward in the region, Haqqani said Pakistan is fighting the menace of terrorism for its own survival -as articulated by President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani.

The world powers should support its efforts through economic and security assistance, he added. He said the Pakistani parliament has also committed itself to ridding the country of the menace of terrorism. The country would not allow use of its soil for any terrorist attacks against any other country, he said.

"We would like nations to understand that they should make available resources — but they should desist from trying to micromanage the internal affairs of either country — neither Afghanistan nor Pakistan can be micromanaged from Washington D.C,  you can have big picture ideas, a strategic outlook but you certainly cannot have micromanagement of domestic politics."

The ambassador’s comments came in the backdrop of a recent move in the US House of Representative which vows to assist Pakistan in economic and security fields, something Haqqani welcomed, but also proposes to attach certain metrics and conditions, something Islamabad sees as intrusion in internal affairs.

Both the Obama administration and the Capitol Hill have voiced their support for tripling socio-economic assistance for Pakistan to $ 1.5 billion annually for at least five years. Pakistan points out that it has lost economic activity to terrorism unrest to the tune of more than $ 30 billion, and that the U.S. and industrialized nations must come forward with a $ 30 billion Marshal plan to ease economic  difficulties for Pakistan and Afghanistan.

In his remarks, Haqqani welcomed the recognition of the regional inter-linkages of the terrorism problem under the newly crafted Obama administration’s plan as well as the administration’s willingness to put in resources for forging ahead with a comprehensive approaching including economic, security and other components.

However, he said, certain areas of the strategy need to be looked in a deeper perspective. "Making a sustained commitment also requires making a sustained commitment of resources," he said, adding that the resources pledged to the country so far in the high-stakes region appear to pale when compared with bailouts the U.S. has announced for bailing out its companies.

"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." "That’s something that in this town needs a review," he added, citing implications the regional situation has for long-term security and

arguing that that socio-economic development of the people will deprive the terrorists of any support they have.

The envoy asked the U.S. Congress to have a re-look in terms of allocating greater resources for the region, described as a top priority by the United States. At the same time, he said, Pakistan understands the importance of using the money accountably and effectively.

"But there is a difference between accountability and instrusiveness. And that is something that needs to be understood," he said

referring to suggestions in U.S. Congress on conditioning aid for the country.

Pakistan, he continued, will negotiate over every detail of commitments that are made to the country. "And we would like to do that in

a way in which the assistance that is given to Pakistan brings real value to changing the lives of our people and strengthening our  security capability." Commenting on the idea of a contact group, he said "it is much better for us to be able to engage bilaterally with the 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."

On building trust he said, "if Pakistan is going to be a partner of the United State in the effort to root out violent extremism and terrorism, then there has to be a willingness to build the trust, to understand the context."

"I think that Pakistanis these days are very concerned about what they think as an unbridled indictment of Pakistan‘s 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."

Regarding the impact of predator drone attacks against militants hiding on the Pakistani soil, he observed, they do 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. Secondly, there is 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 U.S. aspartner and we expect them to consider us as partners."

Jamil Bhatti

Islamabad

Pakistan