In another blow to the already strained ties between Islamabad and Washington, the United States declared Wednesday that it was putting Pakistan on notice, for one more time. In an official testimony before the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Ambassador Alice Wells, the senior bureau official for South and Central Asian Affairs expressed that US expects unequivocal cooperation in ending the sanctuaries the Taliban have been enjoying in Pakistan a claim Islamabad vehemently denies.
“Pakistan is on notice that we expect its unequivocal cooperation ending sanctuaries that the Taliban have enjoyed since the remnants of their toppled regime fled into Pakistan in 2001,” Ambassador Alice Wells said and acknowledged that Pakistan can play an important role in the Afghan peace process. She added that the US was also working to end the sanctuary that the ‘Taliban have enjoyed for decades in Pakistan’.
Pakistan has denied time and again such statements of US that undermine the sacrifices and efforts of Pakistan in war against terror. Right after taking over Washington, Donald Trump opted for a harsh stance regarding Pakistan just to cover up failures of US in war against terror in Afghanistan. Off and on US officials keep passing the statements against Pakistan for not taking enough action against terrorist outfits inside the country. But in reality armed forces of Pakistan have successfully defeated the monster of terror and security situation of country has improved manifold. Writ of the state has been established and construction of fence on the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan is going on in order to monitor any illegal movement or border crossing. On the other side, almost half of Afghanistan is under the control of Taliban and it seems Afghan government is limited to just Kabul and surrounding areas. In such a scenario when insurgency of Taliban is growing and they occupy many provinces in Afghanistan than why they would feel the need to cross border to take refuge in Pakistan.
Pakistan has reiterated that it believes taking action against all the terrorist organizations without any discrimination. Pakistan links stability in the country with peace and stability in Afghanistan. It is need of time that US should stop blaming Pakistan for own failures in Afghanistan and look forward to work in collaboration and cooperation to end terrorism from the region.
