Aid as weapon of influence not a good idea: Haqqani

He told CNN that the United States needs Pakistan for a stable Afghanistan and Pakistan needs the U.S. cooperation to defeat terrorism.

"So we need to work together and both sides are working together. The only problem is whenever there's a disagreement or the pace of things, it always becomes a much bigger story," he said in the channel's Situation Room program, after the Obama Administration said it has paused the delivery of $800 million security assistance for Pakistan.

Ambassador Haqqani said "what needs to be understood is that Pakistan and the United States have a relationship that goes beyond aid."

"You remember the Pressler amendment and so even though the US and Pakistan continued to work together albeit in a limited manner. I think the Americans also need to understand that brandishing aid as weapon of influence all the time is not a good idea."

That kind of approach, he said, would amount to insulting the Pakistani people, who have been on the forefront of the fight against terrorism.

According Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the U.S. civilian aid for Pakistan continues and only a part of the military aid has been delayed. She recognized the Pakistani sacrifices and said Washington's relationship with the South Asian

country remain vital to American national security.

The ambassador's remarks to CNN reflected that both sides are not happy with the pace of deliverables they expect from each other but Haqqani also pointed out some ground realities that shape things in the two countries.

"It happens sometimes. Right now because Pakistan is a fledgling democracy and everything that happens there hits the media and similarly, of course, there's an American domestic political context in which everything becomes an issue because of the way people react to your administration."

The ambassador disputed and discarded the impression that Pakistan allegedly tipped off militants when the US gave it intelligence for action against bomb-making factories.

"The important thing is that the troops went there to take action.... There is no evidence that anybody tipped anybody off. What we need to do -- and that's how governments function.

They need to talk to each other and we are talking to each other at every level. We have an understanding that we will solve these problems together."

In answer to a question about the killing of investigative Pakistani journalist Saleem Shahzad, the ambassador said Islamabad has appointed a Supreme Court judge to head the Commission of Inquiry and commenting on stories in the U.S. media added " You cannot put a nation or its government or its state machinery on trial through newspaper articles."

If the U.S. side has any intelligence on the matter, they need to provide it to that commission of inquiry, he stressed.

The envoy acknowledged there are issues in the ties that need to be resolved.

"But they will be resolved over time. Holding a gun to our heads, saying that this is going to be about breaking off ties or cutting off of aid, et cetera, is not conducive. And senior American officials understand that."

"The U.S. State Department has said today that we are working towards a cooperative relationship."

Haqqani also asked the American media to understand that "diplomacy takes its course, and there's a time for diplomacy and a manner of diplomacy. Screaming and shouting and raising voices, and putting a nation in the dock, is not the way forward."

Copyright APP (Associated Press of Pakistan), 2011