Pakistan has refused to take part in US-Afghan trilateral talks this month in protest against Thursday’s deadly air strike that targeted insurgents in the county’s tribal areas.
The trilateral talks (Afghanistan-Pakistan-United States) on the future of Afghanistan will open on 26 March this year in Brussels.
Pakistan on Friday summoned the US Ambassador Cameron Munter over the recent drone attack in a tribal region, which led to the death of 41 people, Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
‘Pakistan should not be taken for granted nor treated as a client State. It was for the White House and the State Department to hold back those who have been trying to veer Pakistan-US relationship away from the track’, the statement said.
Relationship between the US and Pakistan was already soured over the case of a CIA contractor who shot dead two Pakistanis but was freed on Wednesday.
Pakistan’s Deputy Foreign Minister was scheduled to present Pakistan in trilateral talks which was proposed by the US government.
The United States usually carries out drone attacks in Pakistan’s lawless tribal belt to target insurgent sanctuaries and strongholds.
But Afghan experts say Pakistan uses the incident as an excuse to hurt the chances of stability and peace in Afghanistan.
“Pakistan’s system is over-spoilt and Pakistani government wants to keep up violence and in both Pakistan and Afghanistan, because stability and peace would mark the end of Pakistan’s government,” Fazl Rahman Orya, an Afghan political analyst said.
