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afzaliffi · #1 Sunday, May 13, 2012

from Dawn Newspaper:-
from Editorial "Nato supply issue"

1.AN invitation to Pakistan to attend the Nato summit in Chicago now seems inextricably linked to the resumption of Nato supplies.

2.the Nato supply issue is not a bilateral affair between Pakistan and America; it is an issue that in a sense concerns Islamabad’s relations with the world, for Isaf has contingents from 48 other countries that include all Nato nations.

3. The prime minister’s statements in London on Friday coincided with the Nato secretary general’s press conference in Brussels in which he implied that Pakistan could miss an opportunity to attend vital talks on Afghanistan’s future. Russia and some Central Asian states on the Northern Distribution Network, he said, had been invited to the Chicago conference because they were providing transit facilities for Nato operations.

4.Clearly, the ball is in Pakistan’s court. Evidently, we miscalculated the impact of the supply blockage. The impact is there, for the NDN is costing America an additional $38m a month, but the US and other Isaf nations have not gone down on their knees.
5.The government has to make a decision, irrespective of domestic emotions. The Bonn boycott did not help advance Pakistan’s security interests. Its absence at Chicago will mean Pakistan will not be there when crucial decisions are made about Afghanistan’s future. No state in the world has such stakes in that country as Pakistan. As Hamid Karzai said in one of his more rational moments, Pakistan and Afghanistan are twin brothers.no matter how much noise non-parliamentary forces make. The issue is normality not just with America but with the world. Pakistan cannot afford to shoot itself in the foot.