During a speech in Davos, Switzerland, Gilani announced that the US drone attacks resulted in a “trust deficit” between Islamabad and Washington.
The statement comes one day after tens of thousands of people gathered in Karachi to protest against Washington's policies and the assassination drones being used against Pakistan's tribal belt.
Press TV has conducted an interview with Syed Tariq Pirzada, strategic affairs analyst, to share his opinion on this issue.
The following is a transcript of the interview:
Press TV: In your perspective why has the US resumed the drone attacks on Pakistan?
Pirzada: Well they believe that they can still pressure Islamabad into doing things but they have been doing in the last ten years. Now that the NATO supplies have been cut off for the last two months and this cut off has entered into the third month, they are finding ways to pressure Islamabad.
They know that the first thing that will be on the table if negotiations ever get resumed between Islamabad and Washington, then that will be the issue of the drones because I think the Prime Minister of Pakistan was using pretty mild language. It is not just illegal to attack Pakistan with the US drone attacks. It is the dismantlement of the sovereignty of Pakistan.
This is how the people of Pakistan look in Islamabad.
So it is a pressure tactic but Pakistan is standing firm. You know, as I said, this cut off of the NATO supplies is entering its third month and the message is going to Washington. I think the time has changed.
Press TV: Well you say Mr. Pirzada, the time has changed but of course that the drone attacks continue. What in your perspective Islamabad have to do to actually get Washington to stop attacking its sovereign territory?
Pirzada: Well to tell you the truth, here are two three things that Islamabad still has to do. Cutting off NATO supplies is not enough. They are to simply send a strong signal to Washington that if you don't stop NATO, these strikes against Pakistan we will have to scale down our diplomatic relations with you, our trade relations with you, our military strategy over Afghanistan, our future cooperation on Afghanistan.
And you know one thing. No matter what Washington does, one thing is clear. The road to resolution of crisis in Afghanistan passes through Pakistan and that is the only road that Washington still needs, now for all the just good purposes, for diplomatic purposes, for political purposes and for the face saving device that they need to exit Afghanistan.
So there are lot of other things that Islamabad can do but it is a question of when do they decide to do because obviously we are talking about political and military leaderships in Pakistan that have never taken strong stance against Washington in the past but this is the time the people's anger is drumming this policy and they know they have to respect people's call on the issue.
