Ex-minister: Pakistan-US relations face static situation

Pakistani former information minister said on Tuesday said that Pakistan-US relations are facing a ‘static situation’. Talking to IRNA, Muhammad Ali Durrani Senator of Pakistan Muslim League-Q said that US wants to involve Pakistan in accomplishing its agenda in Afghanistan. “On one hand US wants to improve its deteriorating diplomatic relations with Pakistan and on the other hand they are pressurizing Pakistan over the strategy to fight the terror war.” He said that upcoming visit of US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton of Pakistan would be an attempt to improve its relations with Pakistan. “US and Pakistan nowadays are stuck with their positions,” he added. He said that every county has a right to follow an independent policy keeping in view its national interests and this is exactly what Pakistan is doing right now. Former minister opined that there is lot of public pressure on Pakistan government over its relations with the US. Muhammad Ali Durrani believed that for some time Pakistan-US relations would remain static but in future both countries have to come on a middle ground. The Senator said real issues between Pakistan and US are not open and public is not aware of what exactly is happening between the two countries. “Real problem is of unwritten agenda, real issues between Pakistan and US are different,” he said. The lawmaker said the US wants Pakistan to involve in accomplishing its agenda in Afghanistan but the establishment of Pakistan is resisting to. Muhammad Ali Durrani viewed that Pakistan should follow a strategy that is in the interest of the whole region. U.S. Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, Marc Grossman has also recently visited Pakistan. Allegations by top US officials that Pakistan supported the Taliban-linked Haqqani network in the last month attack on the American embassy in Kabul has caused rift in bilateral relationship. American officials had also claimed that Pakistani intelligence had helped in a truck bomb attack on a US base in Afghanistan's Maidan Wardak province on September 11. Pakistan had dismissed the charges of helping the Haqqani network in Afghan attacks as irresponsible.