Time to take strong action against Pak: Expert

Washington: The Obama Administration should take strong steps against Pakistan, including suspension of all US aid, if Islamabad maintains its defiant attitude and refuses to take action against the perpetrators of the attacks on the US embassy in Afghanistan, a US expert has said.

"If Pakistani leaders maintain their defiance in light of the new information on the cell phone links of the attackers to Pakistani intelligence, the US should begin to take punitive steps toward Islamabad that could presage a breakdown in US Pakistan diplomatic relations," Lisa Curtis of the Heritage Foundation said on Monday.

Curtis, who is an expert on South Asia, was referring to US press reports which revealed that cell phones found on the attackers in the September 13 attack on the US embassy in Kabul were linked to Pakistani intelligence officials.

"Unless Pakistan agrees to take recourse against those ISI officials involved in the September 13 attack and to work more closely with the US in confronting the Haqqani network, the US will have to recalibrate its policy toward Pakistan, despite the potential negative repercussions for other US interests in the region," she said.

Curtis asked the Obama Administration to take several strong steps in the event that Pakistan maintained its defiant attitude and refused to take action against the perpetrators of the attacks on the US embassy.

Seeking to suspend all assistance programmes to Pakistan, including civilian aid, Curtis said even though it was the military and intelligence establishment that bore responsibility for the attack, it would be nearly impossible to provide effective civilian aid programmes without its cooperation.

"Recall the American ambassador to the US for consultations on future policies toward Pakistan," she said.

"The intelligence linking Pakistan to the attack on the US embassy should shake the Administration out of this paralysis. The attack shows that the US s inability to bring change to Pakistan s counter-terrorism policies is risking the entire NATO war effort in Afghanistan and the international community's ability to defeat global terrorism," she said.