WASHINGTON: Pakistan was humiliated in an open US senate hearing on Thursday with lawmakers and witnesses confirming its terrorism-sponsoring credentials and seeking to further curtail aid to the country if it did not modify its behaviour.
In a remarkably candid hearing, US senators openly accused Pakistan of killing of American soldiers in Afghanistan through proxies after perfidiously skimming US taxpayer dollars.
They called Pakistan duplicitous. Supported by expert witnesses, including a former CIA station chief who served in Islamabad, they threatened further aid cuts to a country that has long lived on American and western dole when it is not extending its begging bowl towards Saudi Arabia and China for more crumbs.
"We've gone through a period of time where we've both viewed our relationship as very transactional. We tried to change that and deal with Pakistan in a different manner and to create a more whole relationship with them. From my standpoint, that hasn't been very successful," Republican senator Bob Corker, who convened the hearing of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, declared while expressing frustration at Pakistan's continuing support for terrorist groups.
Corker was particularly incensed that after expending $33 billion in US tax-payer dollars, lot of it spend for infrastructure development in FATA, Washington was finding that Pakistan had spirited out terrorists from the region and was giving them safe havens in urban areas, keeping them out of reach of US drones by hiding them in civilian areas.
"Whereas at one time we were using our drones to ferret out terrorists in that region, what ultimately happened was they moved to the suburbs of Pakistan. They are now getting medical care. The Haqqani network leadership has been living there. The government of Pakistan knows where they live. As a matter of fact, they have safe havens there," Corker disclosed in remarks that could embarrass the John Kerry-led State Department and the Obama White House, which have both funneled aid to Pakistan despite its obvious lack of action on terror groups and its continued use of terror proxies in the region.
Caught with its pants down in the Mumbai terror strike eight years ago, with even US Court proceedings implicating Pakistan's intelligence agency ISI in the attack, Pakistan has tried various strategies to deflect attention, including accusing India of destabilizing it, an allegation that has found no traction despite being aired by its foreign office spokesman Nafees Zakaria on Thursday.
Instead, US lawmakers zeroed in on Pakistan's terrorist credentials, although the death of their soldiers in Afghanistan exercised them more than attacks on India.
Describing the Haqqani network, which Pakistan shelters, as the number one attempted killers of US soldiers in Afghanistan, Corker said its been of "tremendous concern to our (military) leadership there (in Afghanistan)" that Washington has a policy where "in effect we are working with Pakistan" and yet Pakistan's "extreme duplicity" sees it harboring terrorists, and through their own proxies destabilizing Afghanistan.
"It's a very frustrating relationship... I think all of us are becoming more and more frustrated," Corker fumed, a sentiment that was shared by other lawmakers and witnesses, including Georgia senator David Perdue, who cited several US administration reports that had chronicled Pakistan's backing of terrorism.
The expert panel that testified, including former CIA station chief Robert Grenier, essentially suggested looking at aid to Pakistan on a tactical basis against deliverables, with specific use being assigned to every dollar given.
Corker's committee, which curtailed $300 million in aid recently because of Pakistan's non-compliance on not supporting terrorists, looks likely to impose more cuts if Pakistan does not reel back.
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