ISLAMABAD — Pakistan’s parliament on Thursday unanimously approved new guidelines for the country in its troubled relationship with the United States, a decision that could pave the way for the reopening of supply lines to NATO troops in neighboring Afghanistan.
The guidelines allow for the blockade on U.S. and NATO supplies to be lifted but also call for an immediate end to American drone strikes against militants on Pakistani soil. However, the lawmakers did not make a halt in the CIA-led missile attacks a prerequisite to reopening the supply lines, as some lawmakers had been demanding.
The government and the army will use the recommendations as the basis for re-engaging with Washington.
Ties between the U.S. and Pakistan all but collapsed in November after U.S. airstrikes inadvertently killed 24 Pakistani soldiers on the Afghan border. After that incident, Islamabad blocked the supply lines in protest. Washington wants the relationship back on track.
About 30 percent of supplies used by NATO and U.S. troops in landlocked Afghanistan are transported through Pakistan. Washington also needs Islamabad’s cooperation to negotiate an end to the Afghan war because many insurgent leaders are based on Pakistani soil.
The drones are a source of popular outrage in the country and have fueled anti-U.S. sentiment — although Pakistan’s powerful army has tacitly aided the missile attacks in the past, weakening Islamabad’s official stance that they are a violation of sovereignty.
Despite calls by Islamists for a permanent supply-line blockade, few inside the Pakistani government or the army believe this is desirable, given that Pakistan relies on the U.S. and other NATO countries for its economic survival and diplomatic and military support.
The new guidelines call for NATO and the U.S. to pay Pakistan more for the right to ship supplies across its soil and stipulate that no arms or ammunitions be transported. Western forces have trucked only fuel and other nonfatal supplies across Pakistan because of the risk that they could fall into the hands of insurgents.
