WASHINGTON: The US House of Representatives has removed from its bill the requirements of probing the role of Pakistan for enabling the Taliban to capture Kabul in August this year.
The original text of the US National Defence Act for 2022 required the US secretaries of defence and state to certify before a relevant Congress committee that providing covered support to Pakistan was in the national security interest of the United States.
The amended version changed the text by striking off “Pakistan” and inserting any country in the near abroad of Afghanistan. Another reference in the original text sought to determine Pakistan’s role in Taliban’s surprising victory in Kabul. The amended text does not mention this reference either.
The act, however, retains a condition to probe the cause and effects of the US withdrawal. It suggests forming a commission to do so, with the authority to review the role played by Afghanistan’s immediate and distant neighbours.
Another indication of continued US interest in maintaining a good working relationship with Pakistan came earlier this week when the Biden administration invited Islamabad to its first-ever democracy summit, held in Washington on Dec 9 and 10.
Commenting on the invitation, an influential Washington think-tank, Brookings Institution, cited two reasons for inviting Pakistan and not inviting Bangladesh, “which scores slightly higher” on the US democracy index.
“Since 2015, Pakistan’s score has improved slightly, while Bangladesh has worsened,” and another likely factor was the US “desire to balance India’s inclusion with a regional, if aspiring, democratic rival,” the report added. While India ranks in the middle tier of the index, its “scores on constraints on government powers, absence of corruption, and fundamental rights have significantly decreased” from 2020 to 2021, Brookings explained.
The United States and other Western nations have had concerns about Pakistan since the 9/11 attacks in America, but Washington had slowly become less strict with the restrictions.
