ISLAMABAD: Foreign Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif told the Senate on Wednesday that the United States had not brought the government into power and the government had not surrendered, nor it would make any compromise on its national interests. The US asked for going tough on the Haqqani network while it did not make any specific request to Pakistan as claimed by US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson ahead of his recent visit.
Giving a policy statement in the House with particular reference to clarifying the conditions set by the US for Pakistan to carry forward the relations between the two countries, Khawaja Asif said the US had given a list 75 militants, of whom some have died while a good number of them were taking refuge in Afghanistan. He said no Pakistani has been mentioned in the list. He briefed the House after having been asked by Chairman Senate Mian Raza Rabbani in the backdrop of the US secretary of state’s statement about Pakistan.
“Tillerson didn’t specifically mention Hafiz Saeed during his visit, but he did press for going tough on Haqqanis. His name is also not in the list of 75 people handed over by the US, and there is no mention of the place such as Quetta, etc. where a militant might be taking shelter,” the minister said.
Khawaja Asif maintained that 45 percent area of Afghanistan was with the Taliban and IS, where they had shadow governors, which was enough for them to make terror planning. “We plainly told Tillerson that Pakistan’s influence on Taliban has diminished as they have got a new handler across the border,” he contended.
The minister said Pakistan had made it clear to the US that any effort to give “so-called stabilisation role” to India was simply not acceptable and added, “We have categorically told the US that India is the reason behind instability in South Asia.”“We have made it clear to the US this is simply out of the question, and we will not want any such role for India as it has already disturbed peace in the region,” he said.
The minister said the US has been told that Pakistan was ready to play its due role for finding a political solution to the Afghan crisis as military might was no solution to the problem. He said that unlike the martial law regime of General Pervez Musharraf, both civilian and military leadership were on the same page and conveyed a unanimous message that there would be no compromise on national security.
“We did not collapse on one phone call like General Musharraf and instead conveyed to the US that we will not fight its proxy war. We told them (Americans) we did not need any economic assistance, and any military equipment but relations based on mutual respect,” he said while referring to Musharraf’s claim of joining the war against terrorism after 9/11 when the then Bush administration threatened to bomb Pakistan back to the stone age. He said parliamentas well as the military leadership did not bow down to the US pressure and made clear that any relations with the US are possible if it acknowledges its sacrifices in the war against terrorism.
“After Trump’s speech on August 21, we neither surrendered nor compromised on national security. We did not get any dictation from the US because the thing which matters to us is dignity of our country,” Asif maintained. He said the US has also been told that the Afghan ruling elite did not want to end the so-called war against terrorism as they had vested interest and they were making billions of dollars through drug trade, adding that terrorism was taking place from across the border in connivance with India.
“The arrest of Kulbushan Jadhav is one such example of what India has been doing against Pakistan by sitting on the Afghan soil,” he added. On its part, the minister said, Pakistan is ready to fence the border and had also asked the US to fence the border from the Afghan side that will help in checking cross-border movement of militants.
“We also told the US to repatriate about two million Afghan refugees from Pakistan, for which it’s not ready, saying the security situation is not favourable. As long as refugees are here, you cannot control movement of people from Afghanistan,” he said.
To a question by Opposition Leader in the Senate Aitzaz Ahsan whether the US secretary of state specifically mentioned any militant leader’s name, Asif said that he did not mention the name of Hafiz Saeed, the chief of Jamaatud Dawa, who is currently under house arrest.
The minister said the US is considering Taliban as a political entity, revealing that negotiations are going on with them. “And the only militant outfit which they (US) had been mentioning repeatedly is the Haqqani network, and other than that they have no other pressing demand,” he added.
He said that normal security given to Tillerson during his visit to Pakistan reflects that Pakistan has restored peace after rendering numerous sacrifices which the US should acknowledge. “The way Tillerson had to meet Afghan President Ashraf Ghani at the Bagram airbase shows the US and forces of 16 other countries failed to restore peace in Afghanistan during the last 16 years…so our contribution to eradicate the menace of terrorism from our soil must not be downplayed,” he said.
Asif said that the meeting with Tillerson took place in a very cordial atmosphere and that attitude of the Pakistani leadership was not apologetic at all, as they spoke their heart out, adding that Pakistan told the Americans to give actionable intelligence and Pakistan will take prompt action like it did in recent recovery of a US-Canadian couple.
He said that there were other countries in the region who were also stakeholders in Afghanistan, and the US should ask them to play a role in resolving the Afghan issue instead of urging Pakistan of ‘doing more’.
The minister insisted that Pakistan had managed to restore peace in its territory to a great extent and the number of drone strikes had decreased as compared to the previous years. “We have fought away the elements that were the cause of drone strikes in Pakistan,” he said.