Mike Pompeo’s statement: what it meant for Pakistan?

The rift between the relations of Pakistan and America are continuously widening. Newly appointed US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has informed the US house foreign affairs committee  that American officials are treated badly in Pakistan, adding that the Pakistan would continue to receive diminishing US fund in 2018 and may give even less next year. Pompeo said, during a debate on the US State Department's budget for the 2019 fiscal year that "My officers, our state department officers, are being treated badly as well, folks working in the embassies and councils [and] in other places are not being treated well by the Pakistani government either".

Pompeo was responding to questions from Congressman Dana Rohrabacher who said the US should stop providing any financial assistance to Pakistan until it releases Shakil Afridi, a doctor who helped the CIA hunt down Osama bin Laden in 2011. Congressman Dana Rohrabacher, a California Republican, later noted that the Trump administration’s budget request for the next year had no increase for Pakistan. “I don’t see any reason whatsoever to give the government of Pakistan any money…in terms of our foreign aid until Dr [Shakil] Afridi, the man who helped us bring justice to Osama bin Laden [is released],” he said.

US allegation and Pakistan’s response

US embassy in Pakistan alleged that "the harassment faced by American and local US Embassy and Consulate personnel in Pakistan restricts their ability to carry out their mission. The statement further said "We have also documented numerous cases in which ordinary Pakistani citizens participating in our educational, cultural, and development programs have faced harassment by Pakistani government officials."

The ties became more turbulent after a US colonel Joseph Emanuel ran a red light and killed a motorcyclist in Islamabad, last month. Washington had also enforced travel restrictions on Pakistani diplomats earlier this month, following the fatal accident in Islamabad; the move was reciprocated by Pakistan.

According to the newspaper Daily Times, “the restrictions imposed by Pakistan included introducing a travel permission regime for the US Embassy and Consulate staff in Pakistan, treating US diplomatic cargo at Pakistani airports and ports strictly in accordance with the provisions of Article 27 of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations (which does not provide for an exemption from scanning) and implementing strictly the rules (already shared with the Embassy on 27 April 2018) governing interaction between Pakistan government officials and foreign diplomats.”

Pakistan also withdrew facilities being extended to the US Embassy/Consulates, including use of tinted glass on official vehicles and rented transport, use of non-diplomatic number plates on official vehicles, use of diplomatic number plates on unspecified/rented vehicles, use of biometrically unverified/unregistered cell phone SIMs, hiring or shifting of rented properties without prior NOC, installing radio communication at residences, safe houses without prior NOCs, overshooting visa validity periods, and multiple passports.

Such unscrupulous activities against Indian diplomats

More recently, India had also complained about indecent behavior to its embassy staff and officials on Pakistan. The official alleged that members of Pakistan's spy agency Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) entered the Indian residential compound in Islamabad last month, "crossing a red line". "Aggressive surveillance, violation of physical space and tailing of officers in close and dangerous proximity is a perennial issue," said the official. "[Intelligence agency] personnel keep shooting videos of the officers, thrusting phones on their faces. Obscene phone calls and messages are constantly received on phones."

India has sent 12 such messages to Pakistan till March 2018. On March 18 was the 12th such diplomatic communication from New Delhi on the subject this year India has issued note verbales on January 1 and 12, February 2, 16, 22, 26, and 27, and March 9, 11 and 12.

High ranking officials of the Indian Foreign Ministry say that Indian officials too faced "tremendous harassment" in Pakistan but had preferred to handle them with "quiet and persistent diplomacy" instead of flagging them in the media. In October 2016, Pakistan expelled Indian diplomat Surjeet Singh, saying he had violated the Vienna Convention and "established diplomatic norms".

Cutting the US Aid to Pakistan!

Earlier this year, the United States cut roughly $1.1bn in security assistance to Pakistan, demanding that the country do more against armed groups - including the Afghan Taliban and Haqqani Network - which it claims are operating on Pakistani territory.

The State Department 2019 budget request includes roughly $331m in aid programmes for Pakistan. The request includes $200m for economic support funds, $25m for narcotics control programmes, $22.5m for USAID-run health programmes and $3.5m in military training. At least $80m of the aid, earmarked for foreign military assistance, is contingent on Pakistan taking further action against the Afghan Taliban and Haqqani Network, according to the budget request.

There has been a long history of disrespecting the Diplomatic Immunity and other rights provided by Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations.

The Embassies of Pakistan has been the hideouts of its intelligence agency ISI from where he gather intelligence from the countries so that there can be establish an illegal nexus to sabotage democratic system as well as to dissipate their national security and law and order regime which can be clearly seen in India, Nepal, Bangladesh and other South Asian countries. And if any nation takes action against these networks and Pakistan retaliates in an indiscreet manner which is an indicator of their political and diplomatic immaturity and this is a big reason that Pakistan has failed to establish its identity as a responsible nation on the international arena.

Who is Dr. Shakeel Afridi?

Dr. Shakeel Afridi, is a Pakistani physician who helped the CIA run a fake hepatitis vaccine program in Abbottabad, Pakistan, to confirm Osama bin Laden's presence in the city by obtaining DNA samples. Details of his activities emerged during the Pakistani investigation of the deadly raid on bin Laden's residence. Afridi was arrested at the Torkham border crossing while trying to flee the country days after the raid. On 23 May 2012, he was sentenced to 33 years' imprisonment for treason, initially believed to be in connection with the bin Laden raid, but later revealed to be due to alleged ties with a local Islamist warlord Mangal Bagh.  

Dr Afridi’s continued imprisonment has long been a source of tension between Pakistan and the US, which says it is indicative of Islamabad’s reluctance in the fight against terror. Pakistan, for its part, claims the raid – carried out without forewarning – was a violation of sovereign territory.