Pakistan: Halting NATO supplies

It seems the overly jingoistic leader of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) Imran Khan is bent upon putting a strain on relations between Pakistan and the US. His band of PTI supporters and party members, who have now turned into rogue activists, have made the transfer of NATO supplies from Torkham to Karachi virtually impossible due to their blockades and protests. They have been threatening to, and have, roughed up the drivers of these trucks, leading the US to take some very drastic action indeed. The US and NATO have halted the transfer of their equipment from Afghanistan through Pakistan in the light of these roadblocks. The US has specifically stated that it wants to ensure the safety of the drivers contracted to move the equipment. As the 2014 US withdrawal date looms that much closer, the US must, no matter what the cost or condition, move NATO supplies out of Afghanistan, and the belligerence of Mr Khan will not stop that from happening. That is why the US, while optimistic about this situation being resolved soon, has hinted at using the Central Asian states, also known as the northern route, for the transfer of its supplies. This route is a lot costlier and more time consuming than the route through Pakistan but this statement of halting the use of terrain speaks of one worrisome fact: the US, it seems, is no longer dependent on us for one of the most critical agreements that we, as allies, had come to with the US. While the US is being very gracious about the ruckus raised by the PTI hooligans for almost a week now, we should make no bones about the fact that the superpower will remember this turn of ‘friendship’.

The US is no stranger to our tactics; in November 2011, when US fighter jets gunned down 24 of our soldiers at the Salala check post, we resorted to the complete shutdown of NATO supplies. This caused a stalemate in the relations between the two countries. The Salala incident was one in which the national consensus seemed to be to teach the US a lesson for it was our own on the receiving end of the firing line. However, the fact that NATO supplies have forcibly been suspended due to the PTI’s inisistence that drone strikes be halted does not strike a chord with public opinion. All those killed in the Hangu drone strike were, reportedly, militants. Hakeemullah Mehsud, the dreaded TTP leader, was also killed in a drone strike recently. For the PTI activists to resort to manhandling drivers and making the transport of supplies impossible because militants and terrorists were killed just does not add up to a united public opinion in support of Imran Khan’s jiyalas. This is increasingly looking like a case of the provincial government trying to vex the government at the Centre — and the federal government should not take this lying down. While provincial law and order is the responsibility of the provincial government, the fact that these actions are hurting our foreign policy and relations with an ally matters at the national level. Our shutting off NATO supplies after the Salala matter allowed the US to prepare for our yo-yo act and to lay down all possibilities for a route for supplies that does not have Pakistan in the picture. The northern route, while being a hard nut to crack, seems to have been made an option by the US. Imran Khan is going on and on about how this halting of NATO supplies is a ‘tactical success’ but little does he seem to care about the consequences this ‘victory’ may have for the country. Once we pass the 2014 withdrawal date, we will not be an asset any longer. Do we really need to sour relations with the US after more than a decade of war and loss?.