AN invitation to Pakistan to attend the Nato summit in Chicago now seems inextricably linked to the resumption of Nato supplies. This despite yesterday’s meeting between Nato commanders and Gen Kayani at GHQ. As we have been pointing out in these columns, the Nato supply issue is not a bilateral affair between Pakistan and America; it is an issue that in a sense concerns Islamabad’s relations with the world, for Isaf has contingents from 48 other countries that include all Nato nations. The question, thus, needs cool-headed thinking and an early decision because of the international dimensions of its repercussions for Pakistan if the present stalemate continues. The prime minister’s statements in London on Friday coincided with the Nato secretary general’s press conference in Brussels in which he implied that Pakistan could miss an opportunity to attend vital talks on Afghanistan’s future. Russia and some Central Asian states on the Northern Distribution Network, he said, had been invited to the Chicago conference because they were providing transit facilities for Nato operations.

In his talks with British Defence Secretary Philip Hammond, Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani referred to the parliamentary guidelines on foreign policy and said talks with America were continuing and were progressing in the right direction. The same day, the State Department spokeswoman said there was still a possibility Pakistan could attend the Nato summit conference, and that Washington was still working on who was to be invited. Significantly, she referred to Anders Fogh Rasmussen’s statement and said the Nato secretary general “spoke pretty clearly with regard to where Nato is” on this issue. Clearly, the ball is in Pakistan’s court. Evidently, we miscalculated the impact of the supply blockage. The impact is there, for the NDN is costing America an additional $38m a month, but the US and other Isaf nations have not gone down on their knees.

The government has to make a decision, irrespective of domestic emotions. The Bonn boycott did not help advance Pakistan’s security interests. Its absence at Chicago will mean Pakistan will not be there when crucial decisions are made about Afghanistan’s future. No state in the world has such stakes in that country as Pakistan. As Hamid Karzai said in one of his more rational moments, Pakistan and Afghanistan are twin brothers. The parliamentary resolution arms the government with the necessary political and moral authority to act decisively to break the impasse, no matter how much noise non-parliamentary forces make. The issue is normality not just with America but with the world. Pakistan cannot afford to shoot itself in the foot.