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Islamabad, April 24(ANI): The outcome of Pakistan Foreign Secretary Salman Bashir’s visit to Washington is nothing more than an American ultimatum that Islamabad must give in to US demands to maintain the current level of assistance it has been receiving, a Pakistani newspaper has said.

“The keenly awaited outcome of the visit of Foreign Secretary Salman Bashir to Washington…can be summed up as a US ultimatum: ‘If you want to get the aid you have been receiving or promised, do whatever we want you to do, and make no fuss about the violation of your sovereignty the way we want to commit, whether by intruding into your skies with killer machines or using your soil for covert operations that might even damage your interests’,” The Nation reports.

The State Department’s reaffirmation of Washington’s commitment to wide-ranging strategic partnership, US Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan Marc Grossman’s expression of resolve to pursue a long-term relationship with Islamabad, and other such remarks made in the joint media appearance with Bashir are “just diplomatic clichés”, the paper said.

The whole edifice of relationship stands on Pakistan’s compliance with US wishes, it added, noting that Islamabad’s pleas for restraint in the use of drones or the winding up of CIA operations in the country would not avail.

“Right from the time when Musharraf jumped on the anti-terrorism US bandwagon and, in return, Pakistan began receiving assurances of abiding ties of friendship, political observers and media have been warning that, sooner or later, the US would show its true colours,” the paper said.

The US will “not hesitate to trample over Pakistan’s even core interests if, in its perception, they came into conflict with its strategic objectives,” it added.

The paper said that much before its declared mission in Afghanistan came anywhere near the beginning of its end, the US began making overtures to India, which “served to render it more arrogant towards Pakistan and less amenable to settling disputes like the core issue of Kashmir and, under US patronage, it fully exploited the US interpretation of what constituted terrorism.”

The paper alleged that the incumbent government went beyond Musharraf in toeing the American line.

“With the corrupt practices flourishing in its tenure, the economy went into a perpetual decline, surviving on IMF handouts, the American demands became more outlandish and pressing,” it added. (ANI)