Significant Pak policy changes may be in the offing: Report

From Lalit K Jha
Washington (PTI) - Observing that developments in
Pakistan in the aftermath of al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden's
death has fuelled bilateral distrust and acrimony unseen in
the post-2001 period, a Congressional report has said that
significant policy changes from the Obama Administration with
regard to Islamabad may be in the offing.
"(The US) President (Barack) Obama and other top US
officials have maintained a generally positive posture towards
Pakistan in the weeks following the Abbottabad raid, while
also noting that serious questions have arisen over the
circumstances of bin Laden's refuge," said a latest report on
US-Pakistan relationship by Congressional Research Service
(CRS), an independent research wing of the US Congress.
The CRS report running into 28 pages said, "The US
government reportedly has no conclusive evidence indicating
that official Pakistan had knowledge of bin Laden's
whereabouts, but officials in both countries are said to be
waiting anxiously for details from a large cache of
intelligence found in bin Laden's compound, some of which
might implicate Pakistani agents" .
Privately, senior Administration officials reportedly are
divided over the future of the bilateral relationship, with
some at an apparent loss for patience and advocating strong
reprisals for perceived Pakistani intransigence.
Thus, significant policy changes may be in the offing,
CRS said, which prepared the report for US lawmakers.
Evidence for this was found in the statements of Senate
Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Senator John Kerry, the
senior-most US official to visit Pakistan after bin Laden's
death.
Kerry in an interview had said, "In the Congress, this is
a make-or-break moment" for aid to Pakistan, and said he would
tell Pakistani leaders there needed to be "a real
demonstration of commitment" to fighting terrorist groups in
coming months".
The report said Capitol Hill has been the site of much
pointed questioning of the wisdom of continued engagement with
a national government that may at some levels have knowledge
of bin Laden's whereabouts, with figures from both major
parties expressing disbelief at Pakistan's allegations of
ignorance and calling for greater oversight and accountability
for future US assistance to Pakistan.
"Still, senior Members have tended to take a more
measured view, with the House Speaker himself voicing the
opinion that present circumstances call for more engagement
[with Pakistan], not less.
Such sentiments track well with the view of many
independent observers that—despite ample reasons for
discouragement and distrust—the US has no good options other
than continuing to engage Pakistan in what one analyst calls
"the geostrategic equivalent of a bad marriage", it said.
CRS said for a wide array of observers, the outcome of
the years-long hunt for bin Laden leaves only two realistic
conclusions: either Pakistani officials were at some level
complicit in hiding the fugitive, or the country's military
and intelligence services were exceedingly incompetent in
their search for top al Qaeda leaders.
In either case, after many years of claims by senior
Pakistani officials—both civilian and military—that
most-wanted extremist figures were finding no refuge in their
country, Pakistan's credibility has suffered a serious blow.
Pakistan's military and intelligence services have come
under unusual domestic criticism for being unable to detect
and intercept a foreign military raid deep inside Pakistani
territory, and for ostensible incompetence in detecting the
presence there of the world's most-wanted terrorist, it said.