The White House has archived an online petition that sought to designate Pakistan a state sponsor of terrorism. The petition, which was initiated by the Indian community in the US was archived claiming that it did not meet the "signature requirements". Launched last week, the petition had amassed over 1,00,000 signatures in just five days and by Monday it had scored more than 600,000 signatures and is currently the most popular petition on the site.

Even though no explanation was given, it has been reported that many of the signatures were identified as fraud.

However, it is unusual to archive a petition this early as there is a two-months window for the users to sign any petitions on the site.

While it might seem like a setback to India in globally isolating Pakistan following the Uri terror attacks, there was little realistic chance that US would ever enlist the country as state sponsor of terrorism.

This is because US considers Pakistan an ally in its fight against terrorism. In fact Pakistan is the single largest recipient of the Coalition Support Funds (CSF), which Washington pays as reimbursement to its allies for the expenses they incur on fighting terrorism.

If that wasn't compelling enough for the US to shield Pakistan, consider this- the US and NATO is still very much present in Afghanistan.

Afghanistan being a landlocked country, supplies to the forces there including weapons and even other basic stuff have to be brought there by road from a neighbouring country.