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BRUSSELS/WASHINGTON: US and NATO in a bid to punish Pakistan for blocking NATO supply route have decided against inviting Pakistan to the forthcoming NATO summit in Chicago.

According to reports, Pakistan’s chances of attending the forthcoming NATO summit in Chicago, on May 20 and 21, have died down following a deadlock in Pak-US relations.

Both countries have adopted tough positions on their respective demands and a resolution in the immediate future appears highly improbable.

NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said Friday that Pakistan had not been invited to the upcoming Chicago summit.

Speaking to reporters, Rasmussen asked Pakistan to restore the NATO supply route.

“Our supply should be unblocked immediately,” Rasmussen said in reply to a question.

The May 20-21 summit will be the biggest NATO summit in history, with more than 60 countries and organizations represented.

The US administration had previously termed Pakistan s participation in the Chicago summit as critical for the endgame in Afghanistan. Several American officials had repeatedly urged the Pakistani leadership to participate in the Chicago summit for lasting peace and stability in the region.

However, the expectations on both sides took a nosedive when bilateral relations hit a new low following the NATO attack on Salala check-post on November 26 last year, which resulted in killing 24 Pakistani soldiers. Pakistan suspended the NATO supply routes in protest and has demanded an apology from the US for resumption of these routes.

It is reliably learnt that the US special representative for Pakistan and Afghanistan, Marc Grossman has made an effort to convince Pakistan for resuming NATO supply routes and attend the Chicago summit. The remaining contentious issues, he advocated, could be discussed simultaneously as the US was ready to listen and address “genuine” Pakistani concerns.

However, the talks reached a stalemate when the Pakistani leadership, following the extensive parliamentary review, conveyed to the US administration in plain words that nothing short of an apology on the Salala incident was acceptable before moving forward on rebuilding trust and bilateral relationship.

Even the offer made by Marc Grossman for releasing Pakistan s outstanding Coalition Support Fund (CSF) worth $1.2 billion, which has been withheld since December 2010, in case the country agreed to re-open supply routes, could not achieve the desired ends.

Following this apparent deadlock, the US administration has decided against inviting Pakistan to the Chicago summit, in a bid to covey its displeasure on the latter s reluctance to succumb to the American demands. The other purpose of this decision, sources informed, was to make Pakistan realize that critical decisions on Afghanistan could be taken even without Pakistan s participation.

The spokesperson of the US State Department, Victoria Nuland played down the question of inviting Pakistan to Chicago summit. “The guest list is still something that we’re working on, particularly in the context of the ISAF meeting, which will have a larger participation”, she stated while declining to comment when asked about their administration s expectations about Pakistani participation.

In an earlier briefing, US Special Representative to NATO, Ivo Daalder, termed Pakistan a very important country for the stability of the region and including Afghanistan. He was responding to a question regarding importance of Pakistan’s participation in the NATO summit as well as the endgame in Afghanistan.

“The issue of which countries are going to be coming to Chicago is still under discussion at NATO, and we hope and expect that those issues will be resolved soon”, Ambassador Daalder said while going to discuss the suspension of ground supply routes, invariably establishing a correlation between the two.

“As you know, we are in active bilateral consultations as well with a NATO participation in those consultations on finding ways to open the ground lines of communication through Pakistan into Afghanistan, which have now been closed for about six months,” he pointed out.

“Opening up these ground lines is extremely important for the stability of Afghanistan and the ability for our troops in Afghanistan to have the kinds of resupply of resources that is necessary. Those negotiations are ongoing and we hope they can be completed successfully very soon,” the US envoy hoped.

The United States anticipates three results from the summit: An agreement on an interim milestone in 2013 when the International Security Assistance Force’s mission will shift from combat to support for the Afghan national security forces; An agreement on the size, cost and sustainment of the Afghan forces beyond 2014; and a roadmap for NATO’s post-2014 role in Afghanistan.

WASHINGTON: US Senator John Kerry, a leading proponent of US aid for Pakistan, has said called for Pakistan to be more cooperative in eliminating alleged sanctuaries of Afghan militants in Pakistan.

The chairman of the Senatdoe Foreign Relations Committee raised the issue of the continued danger of a sanctuary war being prosecuted against the forces in Afghanistan at a congressional hearing on the upcoming Nato summit in Chicago.

“I am a veteran of a sanctuary war and I know how insidious it can be, and I personally think that it is unacceptable to have a zone of immunity for acts of war against armed forces and against the collective community that is trying to accomplish what it is trying to accomplish,” the Democratic senator said in a statement.

“That means Pakistan has to become more assertive and more cooperative, and we may have to resort to other kinds of self-help depending on what they decide to do,” the influential lawmaker added.

The US has been accusing Pakistan of offering assistance to militants from the so-called Haqqani network and of providing the group’s leadership a sanctuary in the North Waziristan tribal region.

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan may boycott the upcoming Nato summit in Chicago and delay its decision to reopen Nato supply routes in retaliation for the latest US drone attack in North Waziristan Agency, officials said.This was the first such attack since parliament last month approved new guidelines on relations with the United States, which included a call for an end to drone strikes in Pakistani territory.


A statement issued by the Foreign Office denounced the latest strike as “a violation of Pakistan’s sovereignty”.

“Such attacks are in total contravention of international law and established norms of interstate relations,” it added. The matter would be taken up through diplomatic channels both in Islamabad and Washington.

A senior government official told The Express Tribune that Pakistan was contemplating a number of options to convey a strong message on drone strikes to the US. One such option includes pulling out of the Chicago summit scheduled for May. It was, however, not clear whether Islamabad was formally invited to the gathering of nearly 50 heads of states and governments.

US Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan Marc Grossman did request the Pakistani leadership during his recent trip to attend the summit, said the official. “The latest drone attack clearly is an attempt to discredit democracy in Pakistan,” added the official, who was part of recent negotiations between Islamabad and Washington.

Abandoned school targeted

The latest strike took place in Miranshah, the main town in North Waziristan, on Sunday.The drone fired two missiles targeting an abandoned girls’ high school building used by militants, officials said. The school which is located in Qari Masjid village was abandoned by schoolchildren due militancy in the area.

“The building had been taken over by militants,” a local resident said.  An official from the area confirmed that three people have been killed and two wounded. “However, there are reports that there might be six suspected militants killed,” he added. Another security official said the compound was used mainly by Uzbek and Tajik militants.

(With additional reporting by Zulfiqar Ali in D I Khan and agencies)Published in The Express Tribune, April 30th, 2012.

The CM lashed out at Rehman Malik, who leveled serious allegations of financial corruption against the Sharifs in his Saturday’s Press Conference and Sunday’s media talk in Islamabad, and termed the accusations a total fraud.

“Rehman Malik is the IG of liars (top liar) who is trying to defame us by leveling such allegations,” a furious Shahbaz Sharif told a gathering after he formally inaugurated the Muslim Town Dual Flyover worth Rs2 billions here on Sunday.

“I am not like the corrupt rulers (Ali Baba Chalees Chor) who could meet anyone in darkness (secretly). I meet the people in daylight,” he said, alleging that the rulers had earmarked their ‘share’ in the federal budget.

He said some people were unhappy with his development projects, some of them in education sector. “They feel uneasy when they see the (poor) children getting education in Punjab,” he added.

He claimed if the PML-N government was given another chance to serve the nation, it would end power loadshedding within three years.

The chief minister said though he didn’t claim his all projects were corruption-free, the Punjab government’s development schemes were almost transparent.

He appreciated the role of Chief of Army Staff Gen Ashfaq Pervaiz Kayani and performance of National Logistic Cell (a subsidiary organisation of the army) for undertaking andcompleting various development projects in Lahore and other parts of the province.

Though Muslim Town Dual Flyover was to be opened on March 23, 2012 according to a deadline fixed by the CM in August last, the project management could only open the Bridge-1 on the announced date.

On March 23, 2012, the CM inspected the on-going project work and finally ordered the authorities to complete the second bridge till April 18. However, the second bridge could not be opened for traffic before April 21, three days after the second deadline.

Presently, the project management is busy constructing service roads and completing other pending works under the bridges.