ISLAMABAD: Both houses of parliament on Wednesday unanimously rejected the targeting of Pakistan by US President Donald Trump and denounced his complete disregard for Pakistan’s vast sacrifices in countering the scourge of terrorism.

But in their initial response to the recently-unveiled US strategy for South Asia and Afghanistan, both the National Assembly and Senate expressed their commitment to seriously engage with the US on the full spectrum of bilateral issues, based on the principles of reciprocity and mutual respect.

In a forceful resolution, the lower house rejected the US claim of giving billions of dollars to Pakistan in aid, pointing out that Pakistan’s economy had, in fact, suffered a loss of over $123 billion.

Read out by Foreign Minister Khawaja Asif, the resolution termed the recent statements of Trump and his Afghan commander Gen John Nicholson as “hostile and threatening” and called on the government to consider suspending cooperation with the US, particularly the provision of air and ground lines of communication.

The National Assembly expressed serious concern over the increasing concentration of IS and other terror networks in the Afghan provinces bordering Pakis­tan and demanded that Kabul, Washington and their allies should close their borders to leaders of militant groups carrying out acts of terrorism in Pakistan.

NA calls for suspending ground, airspace cooperation with US; Senate wants fact-sheets on US aid, dossiers on Indian interference sent to Brussels, UN

It called on the Afghan government to close the safe havens being provided to the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), Jamaatul Ahrar (JuA) and other terrorist organisations that use Afghan soil to stage attacks against Pakistan.

The house also asked the US, Nato and the Afghan Government to ensure that India was denied the use of Afghan territory to conduct attacks against Pakistan.

The resolution asked the government to draw up a blueprint for the dignified return of Afghan refugees, within a specified timeframe.

In his remarks, the foreign minister noted that a superpower was blaming Pakistan for its policy failures in Afghanistan, and blamed Gen Musharraf for bringing the Afghan war to the country’s borders in order to protect his illegitimate rule.

Before the resolution was adopted, Mr Asif told the house that he was not in favour of mentioning the money America claimed to have paid Pakistan to fight terrorism. “We just want international support and recognition for Pakistan’s efforts in this fight.”

Policy guidelines

The document adopted by the Senate, which was the report of the committee of the whole house on Trump’s new US policy, regretted that Pakistan’s legitimate concerns regarding expanding ungoverned spaces in Afghanistan being used as sanctuaries for terrorist attacks inside Pakistan had been completely ignored.

“Ending violence in Afghanistan requires the elimination of these sanctuaries. The Afghan war cannot be fought on Pakistani soil,” it said.

The report said that proposing an enhanced role for India in Afghanistan would only accentuate the instability in the broader region.

The upper house asked the Foreign Office to convey the concerns of Pakistan, as reflected in Senate debates leading up to the formulation of the report, by summoning the US ambassador and informing him of the same in person.

It called on the government to share with the US a fact-sheet of Pakistan’s contributions and sacrifices in the war against terror, which needed to be appreciated.

“The documentation should also reflect the logistical facilities provided on the ground and in the air to US and Nato troops and their specific economic implications,” the report said. It pointed out that since Sept 11, 2001, approximately one million sorties had been flown across Pakistan’s air corridor, allowing US planes access to Afghanistan, for free.

Another fact-sheet on American assistance to Pakistan should be immediately released, portraying how much assistance has been provided in terms of Coalition Support Funds following the Sept 11 attacks.

These, the report pointed out, were reimbursements to Pakistan, adding that many of the commitments made by the US on supply of military hardware and aid have not been kept on one pretext or the other.

It said a national policy paper should be crafted, putting forth a clear national narrative, that can serve as a document for US policy makers.

It also called for a regional diplomatic initiative to coordinate Pakistan’s response to the US president’s Afghan strategy, in consultation with friendly countries, showing that Pakistan’s perspective has resonance regionally as well as globally, particularly at the upcoming session of the UN General Assembly.

Senators called on the government to also formulate a comprehensive South Asian policy, and that there should be efforts to peacefully resolve the Kashmir dispute, given the fact that the US president had acknowledged the nuclear issue as a potential flash point between India and Pakistan.

India cannot be net a security provider in the South Asian region, given its adversarial relationship with all its neighbours, the report said.

“Pakistan should take note of the fact that by enhancing its troop presence in Afghanistan, the US shall… sustain a base that will allow it to keep watch on Pakistan and the region. Additionally, military escalation in Afghanistan will destabilise Pakistan and the region and have negative consequences for Europe as well, given the threat of extremism and terrorism”, the observed.

Referring to TTP sanctuaries and hideouts in Afghanistan, it said Pakistan should focus its attempts on border management and security along the 2,600km border.

“If the US president can order the fencing of the border with Mexico to ostensibly protect US commerce, there is a far greater urgency to fence the Pak-Afghan border,” the house noted.

On India, Pakistan needs to present a clear dossier on cross-border terrorism with names, dates and unimpeachable evidence, including the Kulbhushan Jadhav case, to focus on Indian actions to destabilise Pakistan using the territory of Afghanistan. Such a dossier, the report said, should be presented to selected western capitals, especially at Brussels and the UN headquarters.

Published in Dawn, August 31st, 2017