A reality check by the Pakistanis would show them that thanks to their double-crossing and obduracy, the US is getting tougher and tougher with them, ignoring their righteous protests over the alleged violation of their ‘sovereignty’ by the drones attacks.

After last November when US-led Nato forces were blamed for killing 24 Pakistani soldiers on the Af-Pak border, relations between the US and its once most favourite client state Pakistan have been going downhill. The US expressed regrets but refused to apologise for the killing of Pakistani soldiers because the attack on them was an act of self-defence. The Pakistani soldiers had first attacks the US troops, so say the Americans.

Enraged Pakistan announced that it will not permit NATO’s non-lethal supplies to pass through its territory, from the port of Karachi to Afghanistan via the Khyber Pass. The Pakistanis said they could rescind this order only if the US apologised publicly and stopped drone attacks inside Pakistan. This formula was backed by the Pakistani parliament, although it took several weeks to arrive at this formulation, which had been dictated by the all-powerful Pakistani army.

The stalemate in NATO supplies from the overland Pakistan route has continued for nearly six months. This must have affected the NATO and American troops fighting inside Afghanistan. But perhaps not to the extent that forces the US to come to Pakistan on bended knees to request resumption of NATO supplies. There is a so-called northern route via Russia and Central Asia for the supplies which, though costly, is working fine at the moment.

Obviously, the Americans (and NATO) are now ready to bear the extra cost involved in using the northern route rather than succumb to Pakistani blackmail and deceit. This has surely worried the Pakistanis because their stubbornness in refusing to re-open the land route has resulted in loss of huge monetary gain to them.

In terms of reimbursement costs and transition charges, an economically (and politically) wobbling Pakistan is losing a lot of money. An amount of $3 billion in US aid that was in the pipeline is frozen. The Pakistanis do not know what to do. They cannot do a 360- degree turnaround and say to the Americans all is forgiven and forgotten, but please rush the dole to us.

Raising the pitch against the US and arousing patriotic fervour of their already radicalised countrymen the Pakistanis are unable to work out a formula that will lead to resumption of the huge US aid they are so habitual of receiving. Their task has become difficult because they know that the conditions they have set out for allowing the NATO supplies to be resumed are unlikely to be met by the Americans.

They had probably assumed that the Americans would, as in the past, put up with their shenanigans and resume all aid while obfuscating the fact about drone attacks. They have also been hoping that the nearer the D-Day of US troops pull out from Afghanistan, the better their bargaining position with the Americans.

That too has proved to be a fallacy. The American enthusiasm for trumping security concerns of all others in favour of that of Pakistan has ebbed considerably. Upsetting the Pakistanis is the initiative taken by the Americans to talk to the Taliban without the help of their ‘non-Nato ally’ Pakistan. The last straw for Pakistan will be the US refusal to put pressure on India for reducing its presence in Afghanistan.        

Given the country’s uncertain political atmosphere in which politicians, judiciary and the military are all at loggerheads with each other, looking for a face-saving formula to ensure US aid resumption looks at the moment an impossible task. Unless, of course, the Americans revert to their old habit of welcoming after a cool-off period the duplicitous Pakistanis as prodigal sons.

The ascendancy of the right wing extremists in Pakistan, who now count the new political star, the emerging ‘hope’ (of the ISI?) and the so-called ‘liberal’ face of Imran Khan among their ranks, militates against any move that may resemble a climb down from the position of unalloyed anti-Americanism.

American officials, on the other hand, have toughened their attitude towards Pakistan and have clearly ruled out an end to drone attacks. Pakistan is no longer an eagerly awaited guest at the high table where the future of Afghanistan is discussed.

It is not that Pakistan has run out of its tricks. By patronising the Taliban, Pakistan still nurses the dream of extending its ‘strategic depth’ on the western frontier by installing a pro-Pakistan regime after the US pull out in 2014.

What this strategy overlooks is that (one) the troop pull out in 2014 does not mean absence of US forces on Afghan soil after that date and (two) that the US will condone the barbaric rule of Taliban they way it did before 9/11. Neither factor works in favour of Pakistan, nor does it promise restoration of good relations with the US as they existed prior to 9/11.

Ultimately, Pakistan will have to learn to be honest in its dealings with the world that will include distancing itself totally from the terror network. Pakistan has to show to the world by its actions that it has given up the path of conflict, deception and use of terror as an instrument of state policy.