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| Osama's ghost haunts US-Pak relations | | | The ghost of Osama bin Laden has
started haunting the US-Pak rela
tions. And this time it is the future of a Pakistani doctor, Shakil Afridi, who has been sentenced by a Pakistani court to 33 years imprisonment on charge of having helped the CIA in tracking down Laden. The Americans are so much peeved over the treatment meted out to Dr Afridi that top Government functionaries have started campaigning for suspending all economic aid to Pakistan. A conservative senator called on the United States to suspend all aid to Pakistan and grant citizenship to a doctor who was jailed for helping hunt down Osama bin Laden. The American lawmakers have already sought to cut or freeze some assistance to Pakistan, the third largest recipient of US aid, after a tribal court last week sentenced CIA recruit Shakil Afridi to 33 years in prison on treason charges. Senator Rand Paul, a Republican proposed going further by ending all aid to Pakistan until Afridi's sentence is overturned and also granting the doctor US citizenship. "Pakistan must understand that they are choosing the wrong side," said Paul, who pledged to introduce the bill when the Senate returns to session next week.
If Washington decided to stop all aid to Islamabad Pakist an may turn a bankrupt nation.The United States has provided more than $18 billion to Pakistan since the September 11, 2001 attacks when Islamabad agreed to turn against Afghanistan's Taliban and back the US war effort. But US officials fear that elements of Pakistan's powerful military and intelligence services still support extremists.Leading members of both major US parties supported a 2009 bill that authorized $1.5 billion a year to Pakistan to promote civilian infrastructure and democratic institutions in the nuclear-armed nation. During the last over one year Washington has become apprehensive of Islamabad's cooperation in the ongoing war against terror. It is because of this apprehension that the US President Barack Obama, has also voiced impatience with Pakistan. He refused to hold substantive talks with President Asif Ali Zardari at a recent Nato summit in Chicago as Pakistan has not reopened its border with neighboring Afghanistan, stopping supplies from reaching international troops. However, Washington's move to grant asylum to Dr Afridi has yielded no results after the doctor refused to leave for the United States. US authorities said a Pakistani doctor who helped the CIA track down Osama bin Laden turned down an opportunity to leave his country and resettle overseas with his family. The US officials said the resettlement offer for Afridi came about the time of the May 1, 2011, raid in which US Navy SEAL commandos killed the al Qaeda leader at his complex in Abbottabad, Pakistan. They indicated that Afridi's family would have been welcome to leave Pakistan with him as part of the resettlement plan. The officials said he rejected the offer for reasons that are unclear. Whether Afridi is able to survive the jail term or not the main issue before Islamabad is Washington's final move on the demand for suspending all aid to Pakistan. Pakistan has been a recepi-ent of military and non-military aid from China but the very survival of Pakistan's economy has rested on liberal financial assistance from Washington. Reports indicate that Islamabad may not now handover Dr Afridi to Washington but it may initiate measures for lending support to the US forces in the ongoing war against terror. In addition to this there is no other alternative left for Islamabad than opening the routes for facilitating supplies to the NATO forces in Afghanistan. Pakistan needs aid from China and Washington when it is not in a position to meet the expenses required for resolving the growing energy crisis. |
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