ISLAMABAD, Dec 21: The government has decided to resist the US pressure for early signing of a bilateral investment treaty without addressing Pakistan’s concerns.

Sources told Dawn that the signing had been delayed by two years because of ‘harsh conditions’ placed by the US in the draft.

If Pakistan decides to sign the treaty in its present form it will be the third country to do so after Uruguay and Rwanda.

The most recent pressure, Dawn has learnt, came from the US when Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte during his visit to Islamabad asked the government to sign the treaty before January 20 next year and declined to change or soften some controversial clauses.

The draft of the treaty envisages manifold problems for US investors and ignores Pakistan’s concerns as a developing country. It is considered here as one-sided tilted entirely in favour of US investors.

Pakistan has already suffered from three arbitrations at the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICISD) under its investment treaties with Switzerland, Italy and Turkey.

The legal costs incurred ran into millions of dollars and actual costs much larger.

The amount claimed under the Turkish treaty was about $850 million (including interest).

“The kind of concessions they (Americans) are seeking should not be given,” an expert said.

“If Pakistan gives these concessions to the United States, it will have to offer the same to 48 other countries with whom it has signed investment treaties”.

Sources said the US administration was pressurising the government to soften its stance on the five controversial clauses of the treaty which had been delaying the finalisation of the agreement for about two years.

It is learnt Pakistan’s Ambassador to America Hussain Haqqani suggested to the government to sign the BIT during the first meeting of President Asif Ali Zardari with President Bush held in September 2008 on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly Session in New York.

But, the sources said, it could not be done because of serious objections raised by various sections in the government to a number of provisions in the draft of the treaty.

It was decided to undertake political consultations before proceeding with negotiations.

According to the sources, some bureaucrats had misled the government about implications of the objectionable clauses and urged signing of the treaty in its present form to please the US administration.

It is learnt that because of US insistence no audio or video recording of the negotiations were made which unnecessarily protracted negotiations.

Former Minister for Investment Naved Qamar had proposed a single round of negotiations to develop accord on unsettled issues.

In response, the US embassy proposed three days of negotiations in November but then the US Ambassador Anne W. Patterson suggested that the treaty in its present form should be signed during the proposed dates.

However, the treaty could not be signed without approval of the cabinet and parliament, the sources said.