Washington, December 18: The United States said Thursday that Pakistan has delayed issuing hundreds of visas for US contractors and officials, adding to tension between the key allies in the war on terrorism.
State Department deputy spokesman Robert Wood told reporters that the US government has raised its “serious concerns” at very senior levels with Pakistan, but added that the cause of the delays is “unclear.”
He warned that the delays, if they continue, could undermine US-backed efforts to fight terrorism and boost the economy in Pakistan, a nuclear-armed country struggling with an armed Taliban insurgency.
“Hundreds of visa applications and renewals for US officials and contractors are awaiting issuance by the Pakistani government,” Wood said.
“We’ve had very serious concerns about these visa issues,” which have been a problem for months, Wood added. “We’ve raised it at very senior levels.”
Wood neither confirmed nor denied that US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had herself raised the issue with senior Pakistani officials.
“But we’re committed to trying to work with Pakistan to make sure that we can get these visas and get on with the business of what we’re trying to do in Pakistan,” Wood added.
Islamabad’s ambassador to Washington, Husain Haqqani, said the visa delays should not be considered Pakistani harassment but a result of a surge in the number of US diplomats and experts coming to Islamabad and the need to comply with rules and procedures.
“We do not harass our allies,” Haqqani said in an interview with CNN.
He described the problems as “little bureaucratic snafus” that have emerged in recent months as the number of Americans in Pakistan “has increased exponentially.”
Haqqani said the delay is “simply a matter of process and conformity of Pakistani rules and procedures.”
Pakistan has to be concerned about the “difficulty of public opinion” in the country, he said, but added that “we are partners and allies and we look forward to helping them (the diplomats).”
Senior Pentagon official David Sedney told reporters that Pakistan’s defense minister Athar Ali addressed the visa issue in December 8-10 talks led by Michele Flournoy, the undersecretary of defense for policy.
“He did take on some of these questions directly. He talked about some, and there are lingering tensions,” said Sedney, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Afghanistan, Pakistan and Central Asia.
“But we also believe that the kind of cooperation we’ve had recently is helping to address that,” Sedney added.
Wood hesitated to call the visa delays a deliberate campaign by the Pakistani authorities when asked if there was such a campaign to harass US officials and operations in Pakistan.
“If any of our officials feel that they are being harassed, there are appropriate channels to go through in order to file complaints about that sort of thing,” he said.
“But I don’t think you can make a general comment that, you know, there’s an official harassment campaign,” he added.
Wood hoped the problem can be resolved quickly.
“I would suspect, if this continues, it will indeed have an impact on our ability to do the work that we want to do to help the Pakistani people, in terms of fighting terrorism, in terms of economic development, and a whole range of issues,” Wood said.
A senior State Department official later told reporters the delays are affecting Americans working in the military, agricultural and economic sector.
But Wood described the problem as a “bump in the road” rather than “a breakdown” in the US-Pakistani relationship.
In a speech in New York last week, Clinton said the United States strongly backs Pakistan at a “critical juncture,” but acknowledged that a general lack of trust is impeding cooperation.
US pressure on Pakistan’s government, as well as secretive US military operations in border regions — particularly the use of missile-firing drones to assassinate alleged Al-Qaeda leaders — are controversial among Pakistanis.
The US Congress in the last few months adopted legislation sending 1.5 billion dollars in economic aid to Pakistan every year over the next five years, but many Pakistanis complained about the strings attached.
US officials said they had obligation to make sure the aid is properly spent.
–Agencies