Pakistan-US Relations Will No Longer Be Secret

The parliament of Pakistan, in a joint session of the Senate and the National Assembly, passed a set of “Policy Guidelines for Pakistani Relations with the United States” on April 12 using a secret ballot. This required that the U.S. cease to use drones to bomb Pakistani tribal areas, demanded the U.S. to issue a public and unconditional apology for the NATO bombing raid that killed 24 Pakistani officers and soldiers on Nov. 26 of last year, required that the Pakistani government press the U.S. to take legal action against those responsible for the NATO attack on the Pakistani checkpoint and guarantee that such attacks and other activities that infringe on Pakistani national sovereignty will not occur again. [The new set of policies] require that the Pakistani government not permit any foreign power to use Pakistani territory to engage in espionage activities directed against another country or to establish a military base, and that the U.S. government not use Pakistani territory and airspace to transport weaponry to U.S. and allied forces in Afghanistan.

The above-mentioned document also makes a series of recommendations to the Pakistani government. First, the Pakistani government should review its policies towards the United States. Further, it should formulate and pursue a policy of independent foreign relations according to the Pakistani constitution and the interests of Pakistan’s ethnic groups, and not make policy according to the interests of foreign powers. And finally, the document emphasizes that Pakistani relations with America must be built on a foundation of mutual and respectful independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity.

This document also sets conditions on the making of Pakistani foreign policy, requesting the Pakistani government to respect the wishes and feelings of the people of Pakistan in formulating foreign policy and mandating that no commitments made to foreign powers may done so orally; rather, they must all undergo parliamentary ratification. Furthermore, the strategic decisions of the Foreign Ministry of Pakistan must receive approval from other relevant departments of the Pakistani government. The document requests the government of Pakistan to continue to deepen its all-encompassing, comprehensive strategic relations with China, to continue to strengthen its strategic relations with Russia and emphasizes that the dialogue with India must continue toward the resolution — using peaceful means on the basis of mutual respect — of the two countries’ unsettled problems. The document also emphasizes that maintaining peace and stability in Afghanistan is one of the cornerstones of Pakistani foreign policy.

This is the first time in the history of Pakistan that foreign policy decisions have been made by parliament. The U.S. ambassador to Pakistan said that he was reading carefully through the document but had no comment yet. This reporter interviewed some analysts who specialize in Pakistani strategic and foreign relations and who believe that the document issued through parliament shows that Pakistan has, for the first time, demonstrated a unanimous and wide-ranging consensus across the entire country with regard to policy on the U.S. They also believe that, after this, Pakistani-U.S. relations will no longer remain secret. How Pakistan-U.S. relations improve after this will depend to a large degree on the political will of the Pakistani people, regardless of whether the U.S. apologizes openly to Pakistan. It will never again be a simple matter of America’s conduct in foreign relations; rather, it will be a question of whether the U.S. is willing to respect the major decisions of the will of the people of Pakistan.

At the same time, this document makes it clear that Pakistan is willing to improve its relations with the United States on the basis of mutual respectful independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity. Although the Pakistani parliament refuses to allow the U.S. to use Pakistani territory to transport weaponry to American and NATO allied forces in Afghanistan, they did not raise the issue of whether the U.S. could provide logistical support for American forces in Afghanistan using Pakistani supply lines. In doing so, the Parliament of Pakistan did not refuse to re-open Pakistani supply lines for the U.S. and, NATO, leaving significant leeway on this issue for both sides. Some commentators have said that, from this point forward, Pakistan will no longer be the irregular, unhappy “non-NATO ally” of the United States, but will have normal national relations. Pakistani-U.S. relations will cease to possess a “special” status. Some Western diplomats in Pakistan believe that, following the killing of Bin Laden and the approaching end of the war in Afghanistan, the honeymoon between America and Pakistan will cease to exist.

This method of passing an advisory document on policy to the U.S. by means of the Pakistani parliament demonstrates that, from now on, Pakistani foreign policy will cease to be the sole domain of the Pakistani military and the Foreign Ministry of Pakistan, but must instead pass through the parliament — the highest mechanism of popular will. This resolution received the support of Pakistan’s army and government, showing that neither the Pakistani military nor the Pakistani government are willing to have independent dealings with America under circumstances that do not have the support of public opinion. The days when the U.S. easily received Pakistan’s promises, concessions and compromises will not return.