Critical Triangle continues....

This comprised close to US$ 300 million of military aid and was a heavy blow to Pakistan, at a time when the economy was already floundering.

These actions would culminate in the suspension of F-16 sales to Pakistan that were so critical to its air force modernisation. The Pakistanis up to this point had not believed that the Pressler Amendment would go into effect and were shocked by the developments.

As far as they were concerned they had fabricated their bombs in 1988 and had not crossed any lines in 1990 that had necessitated the Pressler sanctions. Consequently this was viewed as American fickleness and abandonment of an old friend. Discussions on the subject led nowhere, and having much more room to manoeuvre now that the Soviets were out of Afghanistan, the tone turned progressively sour. In one interaction on the subject with President Ghulam Ishaq Khan, the US Undersecretary of State for Security Affairs— Reginald Bartholomew bluntly said, “we can’t change our policies, you have to change yours,” got up and walked out of the room.

Effectively Pakistan reached the conclusion that the US “had about as much interest” left “in Pakistan as Pakistan had in the Maldives." Compounding the nuclear issue was increasing trouble over Pakistan’s support to insurgents in Kashmir.

By 1990, Pakistan ran the risk of being declared an official sponsor of terrorism. In the Bush Administration’s view “if you get hit with this on top of Pressler, that will end the US-Pakistan relationship.” In addition to nuclear proliferation, Pakistan also came under the MTCR scanner after the CIA found hard intelligence indicating several shipments of M-11 ballistic missiles from China.

To be continued.....