Pak Defence Ministry asks US to leave remote drone attack base

Islamabad: It seems that Pakistan is no longer keen to help out its American ally by providing drone attack bases. Pakistan has reportedly asked the US to leave a remote Pakistani airbase that is used for covert CIA drone flights, Defence Minister Chaudhry Ahmed Mukhtar said today. “We have told them (the US) to leave the airbase,” Mukhtar said during an interaction with Pakistani journalists at his office in the garrison city of Rawalpindi. Mukhtar’s comments came in the wake of the Pakistani Army’s demand that the strength of US military personnel in the country should be reduced to the “minimum essential”. [caption id=“attachment_34652” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“File photo of the slain Al Qaeda leader Osama in Laden. Reuters. “] [/caption] Scores of CIA operatives and American military trainers have left Pakistan in recent weeks. The Pakistani military made the demand in the aftermath of the US raid that killed Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden in the garrison city of Abbottabad on May 2. Numerous reports have said that the CIA operates its unmanned spy planes from Shamsi airbase in Balochistan province, 900 km from Islamabad. Images of US Predator drones at the airbase have been published by Google Earth. Secret American diplomatic cables leaked by WikiLeaks have suggested that the United Arab Emirates, which has controlled Shamsi airbase since the 1990s, has allowed the US to use it for its drone flights. Referring to the US raid against bin Laden, Defence Minister Mukhtar said trust between the US and Pakistan has been “reduced to a great extent” after the incident. “This trust deficit could be reduced by sitting together and taking joint actions,” he said. The US has stopped providing reimbursements from its Coalition Support Fund for Pakistan’s expenses on the war against terror in the tribal areas and, as a result, “this war was harming our economy”, Mukhtar said. Responding to a question, he said there is no need to change Pakistan’s military leadership in the backdrop of the US raid against bin Laden. “The Director General (of the) ISI had presented himself before parliament and offered (his) resignation but the parliamentarians reposed confidence in him,” he said. Mukhtar, however, said “nobody was indispensable”. Asked whether Afghan Taliban chief Mullah Muhammad Omar is in Pakistan, Mukhtar said, “If he was in Paksitan, even then he would have left the country after the Abbottabad incident.” The widows and children of bin Laden are in custody of the government and they will be sent to a “country of their choice as early as possible”, he said. “Several people” were detained during the war on terror but no decision has so made as to who would conduct their trial, he said. Efforts should be made for the rehabilitation of these people, he added. Mukhtar said he favoured negotiations with Taliban leaders to find a solution to the problem of militancy. “The time has come to sit together with serious people on both sides of the Pakistan-Afghanistan border,” he said. Asked whether there is a need for drastic changes in Pakistan’s defence doctrine, he said, “After the September 11 incident, the entire world has changed. So there is a need to change our defence strategy, which remained eastern border-oriented for decades.” However, such policy matters should be discussed in the Defence Committee of parliament, he said. Replying to a question about the safety of Pakistan’s nuclear assets, Mukhtar said, “Our nuclear assets are safe and are being well maintained.” A top American leader had given an assurance that the US was not concerned about Pakistan’s nuclear weapons, he contended. Mukhtar also clarified that Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani had asked the Chinese leadership to help Pakistan in making Gwadar port functional and they had responded that they would take up the responsibility. PTI