WASHINGTON: The United States should apologise for the Salala attack if it wants Pakistan to reopen key supply routes into Afghanistan, Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar said in an interview published on Monday.
“A representative parliament of 180 million people has spoken on one subject,” Khar told Foreign Policy magazine, referring to new guidelines for US-Pakistan ties approved by Pakistani lawmakers which call for an apology.
A US apology is “something which should have been forthcoming the day this incident happened and what a partnership not only demands, but requires,” she said.
Popular concerns
The on-again, off-again relationship between Islamabad and Washington is at a new low, and with US elections looming in November, President Barack Obama is unlikely to say sorry to Pakistan and make himself vulnerable to attacks from his Republican challenger, Mitt Romney.
Khar however said that despite the political challenges, US should live up to its principles of doing “what we consider to be right rather than what is more popular”.
She noted that “for us in Pakistan ... the most popular thing to do right now is to not move on Nato supply routes. It is to close them forever,” she said. “If I were a political adviser to the prime minister, this is what I would advise him to do. But I’m not advising him to do that ... because what is at stake is much more important for Pakistan than just winning an election.”
Drones, Afridi
Khar also criticised Washington’s use of unmanned drones to target militants in Pakistan’s tribal areas, a programme Obama has accelerated.
“If you are creating 10 more targets for every target you take, are you doing a service or a disservice to your eventual goal of winning the war?” she asked.
Another thorn in the side of the contentious US-Pakistani relationship has been Shakeel Afridi, the Pakistani doctor who may have helped the CIA find al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden by running a fake vaccination programme, and who was sentenced to 33 years in prison.
“Clearly, my advice at this point is that we don’t need to blow this out of proportion at all,” Khar said. “But I would certainly not want this particular issue to cast a shadow over the relationship.”
The interview was conducted in Doha during the May 29-31 US-Islamic World Forum organised by The Brookings Institution.
Published in The Express Tribune, June 6th, 2012.
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In such difficult decision resort to the legacy of logic must be resorted to. US and Pakistan are politically mature people. A commission should of joint nature should be established to decide on apology.They should be given time frame of two days to decide. And decision implemented. As far as I can see USA has a right to demolish Taliban web. And Pakistan has no right to fall back on them. Taliban are the bone of contention. Not apology. But who has right to implement order, each one of them have. Taliban are immaterial they have got to be demolished their record is is ghastly.