It would be fair to say that Pakistanis would like their govt to tell US that it will not take directives from them.
LAHORE: If America wants Pakistan to take the very serious step of going after the Haqqanis in North Waziristan then at the very least, it should provide evidence of the group’s operations from inside Pakistan and linking its presence to the attacks in Afghanistan. Also, why doesn’t America realise that Pakistan has paid a very heavy price already for participating in the US-led war on terror? Over 30,000 of its civilians, policemen, soldiers and personnel of law-enforcement agencies in general, have lost their lives in attacks by extremists and militants.
As for our response, the army chief said the right thing, but perhaps he could have been more blunt. The foreign minister has denied that Pakistan has any hand in an assault this month on the US embassy in Kabul, but the focus of her arguments seems to be that America will lose a valuable ally if things carry on like this. It would be fair to say that most Pakistanis would like their government to tell the Americans that it will no longer take directives from the Americans.
Muhammad Azhar Khwaja
Published in The Express Tribune, September 27th, 2011.
