AFTER CHICAGO
After much posturing,Pakistan managed to get an invite to the NATO Summit in Chicago earlier this week. And when Pakistan President Asif Zardari made it to the conference to deliberate on Pakistans role in Afghanistan post 2014,all he got from his American counterpart was a cold shoulder. Newspapers were brimming with reports and opinion articles on how Barack Obama barely said hello to Zardari,all the while ensuring that he did not share the dias with him. The News on May 24 interviewed Bruce Riedel on the snub: Bruce Riedel,who led the administrations initial strategy review on Afghanistan and Pakistan after Obama took office in 2009,criticised the US decision not to hold a full-fledged meeting with Zardari in Chicago. Maybe Im old-fashioned,but thats bad form, said Riedel,a former US policymaker who is a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. Zardari is an extremely proud person and to be snubbed in the way that he was,I think is going to come home to haunt us, Riedel said.
At Chicago Zardari made a point about renegotiating their terms of engagement post the Salala strike,The News reported on May 22: Such a venture is sustainable on a long-term basis only on the foundation of mutual respect for sovereignty and cooperative spirit. Right wing political parties in Pakistan are vociferously against reopening the route.
THE DOCTOR IS IN
WHILE the world thanks Shakeel Afridi,a doctor,for his help in guiding Americas manhunt for its most wanted (Osama Bin Laden) to its desired end last year in Abbottabad,his own country has awarded him a long jail sentence. Newsapers reported that Afridi,who worked at a government hospital,was handed 33 years in jail by a tribal court for treason. The court falls under the jurisdiction of the controversial Frontier Crimes Regulation,a parallel penal code prevalent in Pakistans restive FATA region.
The announcement has earned Pakistan much flak internationally. Daily Times reported on May 25: A US Senate panel voted to cut aid to Pakistan by a symbolic $33 million… $1 million for each year of jail time handed to Afridi… The report added that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton termed the sentence unjust and unwarranted. The Express Tribune said on May 24: US Republican Congressman Dana Rohrabacher… called it decisive proof that Pakistan sees itself as being at war with the US. Americas reaction to its internal matter irked Pakistan,as suggested by a report in The Express Tribune on May 24 quoting the spokesman of Pakistans Foreign Office: It was in accordance with Pakistani laws and by the Pakistani courts,and we need to respect each others legal processes.
