Pakistan must be held accountable for duplicity: US lawmaker

Pakistan has always been a bad ally for the United States in its fight against terrorism and has a long proven history of duplicity in its dealings with terror outfits. US, however, has been reluctant to cut ties or take extremely coercive measures against Islamabad because the supply line to Afghanistan runs through Pakistan.

Now, in an op-ed in The Washington Times titled 'Pakistan's long history of duplicity,' Republican Congressman Ted Poe has said that it is time that America confront the evil of Pakistan and bare facts.

''However, this key link does not come free and has even been severed by Pakistan on multiple occasions after violent incidents between their forces and our own,'' Poe alleged.

Poe, a top lawmaker, said Pakistan must be held accountable for continuously working against the interests of the US through treachery.

According to Poe, Pakistan is his country's ugliest ally. He makes a distinction among ''good'', ''bad'' and ''ugly'' allies of the US. The good ones are allies and partners with whom America shares common interests and values, while the bad ones are countries that sponsor terrorism and not only ''undermine'' America's goals but also ''flaunt their disdain for the Unites States.'' Poe rates Pakistan in the third category: ''the Ugly''.

The Congressman, who represents the second district of Texas in the US Congress, writes, ''The Benedict Arnold of states that say they are our friends, take billions in US aid, then back the very terrorists that are killing Americans. The ugliest of the bunch is Pakistan.''

(Benedict Arnold was one of the earliest heroes of the revolutionary war (1775-83) against the British in America. But Arnold became the ''most infamous traitor'' in the history of the United States when he switched sides and compromised American interests after taking money from the British.

Poe, meanwhile, had recently introduced two legislations calling for revoking special ally status to Pakistan and a ressessment of whether Pakistan is a state sponsor of terrorism.

One of the two legislations introduced in the US House of Representatives calls for revoking major non-NATO ally (MNNA) status of Pakistan, which was granted to it in 2004 by the then President George Bush as the US wanted Pakistan to be on its side in its fight against al-Qaeda and the Taliban.

The second legislation would require the State Department to assess Islamabad's long history of cooperating with terrorists and determine whether or not Pakistan is a state sponsor of terrorism.

''Pakistan must be held accountable for the American blood on its hands,'' said Mr. Poe, who is a member of the Foreign Affairs Committee and serves as chairman of the Subcommittee on Terrorism, Non-proliferation and Trade.

Once a key ally in the US war on terrorism, Pakistan, which harbors more than a dozen terror groups, has been steadily cozying up to America's rivals, China and Russia.

Both China and Russia have been taking advantage of Pakistan's paranoia about India, and the steady decline in Washington's global influence with Donald Trump as President.