The tough talks of US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson during his brief visit to Pakistan should be an eye-opener for Islamabad which has so far meticulously handled its relations with that country. The threats emanating from Washington since Donald Trump took over as the president has further drifted apart the two countries and in the words of Foreign Minister Khawaja Asif, a trust deficit prevails between the two countries and tons of ice has frozen the bilateral relations which would take time to melt. It is all the fault of the past rulers who bowed to the US pressure and had accepted every demand whether reasonable or unreasonable. They had failed to stand up on their feet as leaders of a respectful nation and were used to give rosy welcome to Af-Pak envoy, who deemed themselves as viceroys. The term Af-Pak itself was insult to the Pakistani nation, but the past rulers crossed all limits of shame. The spineless leaders did whatever the US demanded them to do and the situation now has reached a point where the new US administration has started claiming Pakistan as its colony. The new US administration issues orders like a boss and none others but we Pakistanis have given them the opportunity to act in the manner.
Pakistan has also been held hostage to the international financial institutions most of which work and operate under the influence of the United States. But the time has come the leadership should come out of the hibernation and set a new tone of its foreign policy to play its role in the international diplomacy. It is time to learn from two close friends of Pakistan, Iran and Turkey, which have kept themselves away from all kinds of the US pressure and their foreign policy is based on national honour and dignity. The Pakistani economy is resilient and US could not do much to damage it in the new world order which is not devised by Washington but is a product of circumstances. The European Union, Russia, and several others countries have successfully adopted independent foreign policies and have refused to toe the line of the United States. Still Pakistani nation does not want any confrontation with the United States, but is not ready to own its failures in Afghanistan where it has installed its puppet government and has military bases to fight Taliban.
Pakistan has already lost over $100 billion to its economy and 100,000 souls, but instead of appreciation for the sacrifices, it is being threatened. The leadership should now make it clear to the United States that diplomatic relations could be curtailed to minimum levels or even could be broken if this kind of threats continued to be hurled from Washington.
