Pakistan should officially block the supply route and keep it blocked until this provision in the US law is taken out.
KARACHI: Pakistan’s relationship with the United States is getting more and more complicated. The US National Defence Authorisation Bill of 2014 approved by the Congress (and expected to obtain approval from the Senate) reduces the amount available for reimbursing Pakistan from $1.65 billion in 2013 to $1.5 billion in 2014 for using supply routes through Pakistani territory. In addition, the legislation now has a clause whereby the US defence secretary will have to certify to Congress that Pakistan is taking demonstrable actions against al Qaeda and other militant groups active along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border.
What Pakistan should, in fact, do is to officially block the supply route and keep it blocked until this provision in the US law is taken out or amended. See for instance the way India has responded to the US arresting and humiliating one of its female diplomats posted in New York.
Ali Ashraf Khan
Published in The Express Tribune, December 26th, 2013.
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