Bilateral relations between Pakistan and the United States appeared to be worsening Saturday after Pakistan’s spy chief, supported by angry legislators, again berated the Obama Administration for authorizing a stealth raid on Osama Bin Laden’s compound without informing Pakistani authorities.
The legislators approved a resolution that asked the US to immediately stop drone flights over Pakistani territories where terrorists were suspected to live. They also warned that if Washington did not comply, Pakistan would "review" bilateral relations between the two countries. Implicit in the resolution was a possibility that Islamabad would move to downgrade or terminate diplomatic ties with the US.
That may have been political theater. Pakistan gets $1.2 billion annual from the US in military aid to bolster its anti-terrorism efforts. In the last 10 years, Islamabad has received $20 billion in such aid. Critics aver, however, that much of this aid has been used by Pakistan to buy weaponry to use against its neighbor and rival, India.
Regardless of how Pakistan has used American aid, it can scarcely afford to lose it. US Congressmen have already called for the aid to be greatly cut down or even eliminated altogether—and Pakistan’s lobbyists in Washington have been furiously trying to placate American legislators.
For example, Pakistan pays Locke Lord Strategies more than $75,000 a month to convince congressmen that it did not hide Bin laden. In all, Pakistan spends several million dollars each year on lobbyists.
US Navy Seals killed bin Laden, founder of the terrorist group Al Qaeda, in that raid. The commandos spirited away a large trove of flash drives, computers and disks. Besides material relating to Al Qaeda’s operations, investigators discovered a cache of pornographic videos. The fact that Bin Laden possessed these graphic videos offered a hypocritical contrast to his frequent tirades against what he called the debauched nature of American society.
Agence-France Presse reported from Islamabad that Pakistani legislators want a probe into the unilateral US action. Their call came after a joint sitting of parliament that lasted more than ten hours starting Friday.
The joint sitting was held in a rare private session with top military officials that ran into early Saturday. The military officials did not testify.
While Pakistani lawmakers agreed on the forming of an independent probe to look into the "situation arising from unilateral US action in Abbottabad," the country’s intelligence chief Gen. Ahmed Shuja Pasha said he was willing to resign if lawmakers demanded it—but no one did.
Perhaps that was because politicians and civilians in Pakistan rarely want to cross General Pasha, who heads the all-powerful Directorate of Inter-Services Intelligence.
The country’s lawmakers were, however, keen that the government "appoint an independent commission on the Abbottabad operation, fix responsibility and recommend necessary measures to ensure that such an incident does not recur," according to their resolution.
"The composition, modalities of the commission will be settled after consultations between Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani and leader of the opposition," said the resolution.
Pakistan’s opposition leader, former prime minister Nawaz Sharif on Wednesday demanded an independent inquiry into the US raid that killed Bin Laden on May 2, rejecting an internal military probe ordered by the state.
Describing the continued US drone strikes as "unacceptable," parliament said in a resolution: "Such drone attacks must be stopped forthwith, failing which the government will be constrained to consider taking necessary steps including withdrawal of (the) transit facility allowed to NATO."
Pakistan is a strategically important state for the US and NATO as most supplies and equipment required by foreign troops in Afghanistan are shipped through the main northwestern border crossing, which comes under frequent militant attacks. Pakistan has previously blocked the transit crossing into Afghanistan to yield pressure on the US.
US strikes in Pakistan doubled last year, with more than 100 drone operations killing over 670 people, according to an AFP tally.
The CIA has said the covert program has severely disrupted Al Qaeda’s leadership.
A US drone strike in North Waziristan tribal region near the Afghan border on Friday killed three alleged militants.
In related news, despite arrests warrants in connection with the murder of former premier Benazir Bhutto, former Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf said in Dubai Friday that he plans to return to Pakistan no later than March 2012 as he wants to run for elections to reclaim the presidency next year.
Mr. Musharraf defended his country when he said that the country’s domestic spy services did not know of Bin Laden’s location and said the US would be making a "big mistake" by demanding further probes into Pakistan’s internal intelligence operations.
Mr. Musharraf, who denies any involvement in the death of Ms. Bhutto in 2007, said he would return to Pakistan no later than March 23, 2012 to Lahore.
"Security—it is an issue," Mr. Musharraf told reporters. "I’m a risk taker … I’m taking it for the state of Pakistan."
That may have sounded laudable, but General Musharraf is given little chance of making a political comeback in his native country—not the least because he would face outstanding charges on corruption.
The general also added that Pakistanis were victims of terrorism and that the country was fighting terrorism for its own domestic security.
On Friday, a double Taliban suicide attack that killed 66 paramilitary police recruits represented the deadliest terrorist strike in the country since Bin Laden’s death.
Friday’s attack came as both the Pakistani and Afghan chapters of the Taliban have been escalating attacks to prove they remained a potent force and bolster their profiles in case peace efforts succeed in Afghanistan.
Some observers thought that the killing of Bin Laden would discourage terrorists, but Friday’s attack seemed to prove otherwise.