Pakistan said on Wednesday it had ordered officials to finalize an agreement as quickly as possible on lifting a six-month blockade on overland NATO supplies into war-torn Afghanistan. Islamabad has stopped short of announcing when the transit lines will reopen, but has signaled President Asif Ali Zardari will attend key talks on Afghanistan in Chicago on May 20-21, after a last minute invitation from NATO.
Pakistani and US officials are locked in talks to finalize a deal on again allowing thousands of trucks and oil tankers to carry non-lethal supplies from the southern poor city of Karachi to landlocked Afghanistan. Asked if there was any deadline for the talks, information minister Qamar Zaman Kaira said, “There is no deadline. All departments have been asked to conclude their negotiations in the quickest possible time.”
By going to Chicago, Pakistan hopes to ease its international isolation and boost its leverage over the future of Afghanistan, as Western countries pull out their combat forces by 2014. But Islamabad has essentially been forced to climb down on demands for an American apology for the air strikes and an end to drone strikes targeting Taliban and Al-Qaeda on its soil.