Canada has asked conflict-ridden Pakistan for permission to ship supplies home through Karachi as part of a 2011 military pullout from Afghanistan − an exit that's more complicated now that Canadian soldiers are being evicted from a Mideast air base.

Mian Gul Akbar Zeb, Pakistan's high commissioner to Canada, said Ottawa has requested approval to start as early as June, 2011. It would amount to ferrying "non-sensitive" military supplies such as tents over land from Kandahar, Afghanistan. The shortest distance to Pakistan's port city of Karachi by road is about 900 kilometres, but the threat of militant attacks makes longer routes necessary at times.

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