‘I never dreamt of success. I worked for it’ - Estée Lauder

Seemingly, Washington’s carrot and stick policy has decisively taken a turn that Pakistan can ill afford. At least, not right now. The developments in the last few days provide ample evidence of tough days ahead. The absence of a strong government in Islamabad makes the situation even worse. History repeats itself but in the realm of Pak-US relations, it repeats itself rather a bit too often. Is the US up to teaching a fresh lesson to its major non-NATO ally - again? The punishing mood seems quite menacing, to say the least. More importantly, what has, or has not Pakistan done recently to merit this sudden unwanted attention? Which direction Islamabad is required to go now and ‘do more’? Facing an acute economic crunch and unending political uncertainty, Pakistan seems to be running short of viable options.

The US has imposed sanctions on four entities for their alleged involvement in supplying ‘missile-applicable items’ to Islamabad’s long-range ballistic missile program. Rejecting the idea politely, the Foreign Office has termed the move as ‘discriminatory approaches and double standards’ and the ‘political use of export controls’ (read exploitation). The entities are said to be provided by China and Belarus. Washington hastened to add that it was not a punishment but an effort to bring about ‘a positive change’ in Pakistan’s behavior while explaining that ‘the integrity of these sanctions lies not only in the ability to designate and add persons to the Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons List (SDN) but also in the willingness to remove persons from the list in accordance with the law.’ Clearly, these sanctions contradict the claims made recently by the US to assist Pakistan in its economic........

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