SPY EYES

As part of its plan to revise its agreements with the United States, Pakistan wants complete knowledge of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) imprint in Pakistan, future drone attacks only on the basis of Pakistani intelligence and a firm assurance that there will be no unilateral military action again on the pattern of the May 2 raid and the recent NATO air strike that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers.

If these major Pakistani demands are met then Islamabad and Washington could start working as allies once again, extending to each other full counter-terrorism cooperation but if not, their relations would continue to remain frozen. At present, Pakistan and the United States are involved in intense consultations through formal and informal channels to iron out serious differences that erupted between the two countries in the wake of bin Laden’s killing in Abbottabad and exacerbated further when NATO carried out a deadly air strike on Pakistani border posts in Mohmand Agency last month.

Pakistan’s foreign policy managers will start reviewing plans for future course of action for ties with the US in coming months and years today (Monday) in a two-day envoys’ conference here at the Foreign Office. A Pakistani diplomat requesting anonymity said Pakistan would come up with a final plan on how to deal with the US at the end of the conference but the draft of the strategy included three major demands that Islamabad wanted Washington to fulfil.

“Firstly, the US shall give Pakistan a clear picture about the CIA imprint in Pakistan in future and there shall be no ambiguity in that. We must know how many CIA agents are in Pakistan and what exactly they are doing and also that they would not indulge in any anti-Islamabad activity,” he said. He said the US would not carry out any drone strikes on its own in future and it could be done only when extremely needed in line with Pakistani intelligence. “The third main issue is of unilateral military action on Pakistani soil, it would not be tolerated and hence there must be a firm assurance by Washington that there would be no breach of our sovereignty,” the official said. Another Pakistani official confirmed the demands to be put forth before the US and said explanation would also be sought from Washington about its position on Islamabad’s role in peace talks with the Taliban.

He said Pakistan wanted a major role for itself in peace talks with the Taliban and also a US guarantee that Islamabad would not be sidelined or ignored again. He also revealed that in his recent meeting with Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar, US Ambassador Cameron Munter made a strong demand for the resumption of NATO supplies while warning of serious consequences in case of non-acceptance. “However, Ambassador Munter was told that the US demand would not be accepted before Washington comes up with the acceptance of Pakistani demands related to revisiting of Pakistan-US agreements,” he said.