ISLAMABAD: Senate Chairman Raza Rabbani said on Thursday that the people of Pakistan and parliament were “appalled” at the views expressed by certain US lawmakers in the US Congress regarding Pakistan.

“This seems to have become an unfortunate pattern of blaming Pakistan for mistakes made by US policymakers on Afghanistan and elsewhere in the Muslim world, which the recent Chilcot inquiry has revealed,” Mr Rabbani said in a statement in reaction to reported proceedings of a US congressional panel in which members harshly criticised Pakistan for its alleged dubious role in the ongoing war on terror.

“Such sentiments also demonstrate a marked lack of respect and recognition of the tremendous contribution made by Pakistani people and armed forces in the fight against terrorism,” the Senate chairman said.

Given this context, he said, it was not surprising that the people of Pakistan were now forced to ask the question whether “they are dealing with friends or foes in the American Congress”.

A number of US Congressmen during a meeting of a committee had called for cutting off all assistance to Pakistan to force Islamabad to act against the Afghan Taliban groups allegedly using its territory to launch attacks in Afghanistan.

Some US lawmakers and witnesses also suggested declaring Pakistan a state sponsor of terrorism and imposing economic sanctions, if Islamabad did not eliminate the alleged terrorist safe havens on its territory.

During the proceedings, more than once Pakistan was called manipulative and accused of treating the US like chumps.

Mr Rabbani said that these statements from some of the US lawmakers were a case of “the pot calling the kettle black”, given their deplorable track record of double standards on such areas as human rights.

“Their conspicuous silence on the killings of unarmed civilians in India-held Kashmir, the treatment being meted out to African-Americans in their own country and the effort to impose India on the Nuclear Supplier Group in violation of all norms of nuclear non-proliferation reflect this,” he added.

The Senate chairman expressed the hope that saner elements in the US Congress would take note of such irresponsible statements.

Published in Dawn, July 15th, 2016