US report says Pakistan harassing its diplomats | WPN World People News

In a strikingly blunt report, the US State Department has accused Pakistani officials of resorting to "deliberate, willful and systematic" harassment of American diplomats in the country, following bilateral tension between the two allies of the war on terror.

The report says that the rising obstruction of US envoys by officials in Pakistan is "significantly impairing" the work of American officials.

"Official Pakistani obstructionism and harassment, an endemic problem in Pakistan, has increased to the point where it is significantly impairing mission operations and programme implementation."

The report elaborated that the obstruction included delays in getting visas, holding up shipments for construction projects and aid programmes, and surveillance of employees.

US officials, it said, were being singled out more than other international diplomats. "While other diplomatic missions have experienced similar treatment, the United States is clearly the principal target."

The report is based on visits to the US missions in the Pakistani cities of Islamabad, Karachi, Peshawar, and Lahore.

The report highlights that the raid on Al Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden's compound that led to his killing in May last year and a NATO air strike in November that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers were turning points in the ties between the two countries.

It also said that the Osama raid was a double embarrassment for the government because it was evidence of "both Pakistani government incompetence and its inability to detect or defend against a military intervention".

"Events of the past year have rocked the US-Pakistani relationship and fundamentally altered the assumptions on which US engagement with Pakistan has been based since 2009."

source: US News.net