Pakistan may reopen Nato supply routes in a week

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan says it will ‘soon’ reopen the Ground Lines of Communications (GLOCs) for Nato containers to re-enter Afghanistan and this could happen in a ‘week’s time.’ The United States too admits that GLOCs will open ‘soon’ but has refrained from giving a timeframe. “Soon” appears to be the key word but neither side is willing to give the exact date when consultations presently being held in Islamabad, and through video links with Washington, will finally wrap up. When a senior Pakistani diplomat, monitoring the deliberations, was approached, he told The News, “We will open GLOCs soon. My hunch is in a week’s time,” which could be around June 14. Earlier, when a senior official of the State Department was asked the same question, he told The News, “There is a “package deal” being discussed at high levels, which includes Coalition Support Fund (CSF), but the deal is not yet quite concluded. We remain hopeful.” He confessed that he was unaware of any ‘dates’ for either opening of GLOCs or the amount fixed for reimbursement of the CSF. “We would be delighted if Pakistan would announce sooner, rather than later, the opening of GLOCs. However, Pakistan has not yet conveyed to us any hints about a date,” he added. Earlier, spokesman at the State Department had said, “We hope to reach resolution soon. I don’t know if they’re meeting every day, but the team remains in Islamabad discussing it. We are continuing to meet in Islamabad to talk over these issues, as we are discussing a broad range of issues with Pakistan. It’s slow going. But we’re making progress.” Pakistan’s admission of opening up GLOCs in a week’s time came the same day, when in Kabul, US Defence Secretary Leon Panetta, made a statement that the US was reaching the limits of its patience with Pakistan over ‘safe havens’ for terrorists inside Pakistan. Among some of the ‘irritants’ being deliberated upon by both sides are GLOCs and CSF, the amount the NATO has to pay for each container that passes through Pakistan, iron clad guarantees that Salala-like attacks are not repeated, that all agreements will be put on paper and a US apology for killing Pakistani soldiers on the Salala check-post, on November 26, 2011, remains. Just two days ago, Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar once again made a fresh demand for a US apology while earlier, Presidential spokesperson, Senator Farhatullah Babar, while demanding settling of CSF, said the fight against extremism cannot be won by weapons alone and it is imperative to win the hearts of the people in order to establish peace in the region. Interestingly, the Parliamentary recommendations remained silent on future directions of bilateral relations except that, “Pakistani territory including its air space shall not be used for transportation of arms and ammunition for Afghanistan’. Presently, the two sides are also discussing ways and means to ensure that Nato containers do not contain lethal weapons. However, despite Parliamentary recommendations, Pakistan has admitted that arms and ammunition are being flown over Pakistan’s airspace.