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                        <title>The Express Tribune</title>
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                        <description>The Express Tribune keeps you up to date with all the latest happenings from Pakistan and across the world!</description>
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			<title>US has backup plan if Pakistan shuts Shamsi airbase: US officials</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/203557/us-has-backup-plan-if-pakistan-shuts-shamsi-airbase-us-officials</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/203557/us-has-backup-plan-if-pakistan-shuts-shamsi-airbase-us-officials#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Wed, 06 Jul 11 03:37:36 +0500</pubDate>
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				<![CDATA[reuters]]>
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			<category><![CDATA[Pakistan]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=203557</guid>
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				<![CDATA[United States plans to keep using an airstrip inside Pakistan for non-lethal drone flights against militants.]]>
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				<![CDATA[The United States plans to keep using an airstrip inside Pakistan for non-lethal drone flights against militants near the Afghanistan border despite demands from some Pakistani officials that Washington vacate the base, three US officials said.

The airstrip at Shamsi in Baluchistan will continue to be used for some drone surveillance operations, while the CIA, which is principally responsible for the missions, is already using facilities in Afghanistan to launch some armed drone aircraft strikes on targets over the border in Pakistan.

"The facility remains fully operational and supports American counter terrorism operations in Pakistan," one of the officials told Reuters on Monday.

But the official added: "If, for whatever reason, it was no longer available, there are certainly other ways to continue the program and to sustain the intense pressure it's put on a lQaeda and its militant allies."

The Pakistani tribal regions are known to provide sanctuary for al Qaeda and Taliban militants and the United States has been pressing Pakistan to launch a broad military offensive there.   The Washington Post reported on Saturday that three months ago the CIA had suspended using the base as a launch site for armed drones targeting al Qaeda and other militants.

However, a US official said any temporary lull in drone operations from the Pakistani base was part of a wider drop off instituted by the United States during bilateral tensions over Pakistan's arrest and detention of CIA contractor Raymond Davison murder charges.

Davis shot dead two Pakistani men after what he described as an armed robbery attempt.

He eventually was released following intense pressure from US authorities, who claimed he was covered by diplomatic immunity.

The families of the men he shot were also paid compensation.

US officials said CIA and Pakistani personnel remain stationed at the Shamsi facility. Keeping the base open for US drone flights and maintaining Pakistani involvement in base operations is regarded in Washington as a means of ensuring that Islamabad retains a stake in the CIA's use of the remotely controlled drones.

The two US officials said the United States already has adequate infrastructure outside Pakistan -- principally in Afghanistan, though one official said ships could also be used-- to continue substantial drone operations against militant targets in Pakistan.

Relations between Washington and Islamabad have been strained since late last year, when the CIA withdrew its Pakistan station chief after his name was leaked to the media.

Ties between the two governments deteriorated further in the wake of Davis' detention and the May 2 raid in which US Navy SEALs killed Osama bin Laden at a hideout near Pakistan's main military academy.

The US did not inform Pakistan about the bin Laden raid until American raiders were clear of Pakistani territory.

On Sunday, Pakistani Prime Minister Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani was quoted saying that his government had never allowed the United States to use Pakistani bases for lethal drone strikes.

Defense Minister Chaudhry Ahmed Mukhtar last week said Pakistan had asked the US to vacate the Shamsi base.

US officials deny both of those assertions. But CIA drone operations inside Pakistan remain classified in order to allow Pakistani authorities to deny knowing about US activities for domestic political reasons.]]>
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			<title>Shamsi, drones and our sovereignty  (II)</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/202978/shamsi-drones-and-our-sovereignty-ii</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/202978/shamsi-drones-and-our-sovereignty-ii#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Tue, 05 Jul 11 15:07:07 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[letter.]]>
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			<category><![CDATA[Pakistan]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=202978</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[I cannot for the life of me understand why we take billions in aid from the US and then abuse it and hate it.]]>
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				<![CDATA[For a state that ranks at the bottom of several global rankings (status of women, incidence of poverty, law and order index, safety of life for journalists, literacy, suicide bombings, failed state index and so on), telling the US (which last time I checked was still the global super power) that we will not compromise on sovereignty sounds just a bit too hard to believe.

A military-controlled and dominated state that still has fantasies of things like ‘strategic depth’ and which many outside of Pakistan believe harbours terrorists can’t keep pulling the wool over the world’s eyes.

The real issue is not pontificating about sovereignty and linking it with Shamsi and the use of drones but rather that if we don’t correct our course now, we could end up on a badly losing side. The time for verbal semantics is well over. We cannot keep telling the world that we have militants and jihadis waiting in the wings to take over and hence it should help us, because the fact of the matter is that many in the world think that that’s already the situation in Pakistan.

If the US pulls out its economic aid and assistance, and so do other multilateral lending institutions, then the state could well collapse under the burden of its debts. I cannot for the life of me understand why we take billions in aid and shiny weapons from the US and then abuse it and hate it. What a sad lot of hypocrites we are.

Haris Chaudhry

Published in The Express Tribune, July 6th, 2011.]]>
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			<title>Shamsi, drones and our sovereignty</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/202979/shamsi-drones-and-our-sovereignty</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/202979/shamsi-drones-and-our-sovereignty#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Tue, 05 Jul 11 15:06:06 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[letter.]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Pakistan]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=202979</guid>
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				<![CDATA[The UAE is not going to jeopardise its relationship with the US on our behalf.]]>
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				<![CDATA[This is with reference to Ejaz Haider’s article of July 5 titled “The curious case of the Shamsi airbase”.

His final sentence is key in that it suggests quite clearly that someone is looking the other way, or had given permission for the drones to be flown from Shamsi over Pakistani airspace. While such specific incidents may be a thing of the past, the point is that we are ourselves at fault. Each year, we allow royals from the Gulf states to do as they wish as they hunt our endangered species. And when these same Gulf states treat our Pakistani workers shoddily, we look the other way.

The UAE is not going to jeopardise its relationship with the US on our behalf. All this cloak and dagger about who is at the airbase and who allowed it to be used by the Americans is pointless. The fact of the matter is that none of this would happen without the consent of the military establishment and it is time that it owned up to this.

Syed Nadir El-Edroos

Published in The Express Tribune, July 6th, 2011.]]>
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			<title>The curious case of the Shamsi airbase</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/202213/the-curious-case-of-the-shamsi-airbase</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/202213/the-curious-case-of-the-shamsi-airbase#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Mon, 04 Jul 11 16:49:02 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[Ejaz Haider]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Pakistan]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=202213</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[Between the UAE and Pakistan, the base was handed over to the US and everyone looked the other way over its use.]]>
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				<![CDATA[Shamsi airbase: A Reuters story calls it a mystery wrapped in a riddle. Is it?

There are three state actors involved in the issue — Pakistan, the United Arab Emirates and the United States. One can be sure that none is likely to tell the truth. But, as Bacon said, if something “be thought secret, it inviteth discovery; as the more close air sucketh in the more open”. So, let’s begin with what is known.

In his book In the Line of Fire, this is what former general-president Pervez Musharraf wrote in detailing the US demands after 9/11:

“How could we allow the US ‘blanket overflight and landing rights’ without jeopardising our strategic assets? I offered only a narrow flight corridor that was far from any sensitive areas. Neither could we give the US ‘use of Pakistan’s naval ports, air bases, and strategic locations on borders.’ We refused to give any naval ports or fighter aircraft bases. We allowed the US only two bases — Shamsi in Balochistan and Jacobabad in Sindh — and only for logistics and aircraft recovery. No attack could be launched from there. We gave no ‘blanket permission’ for anything.”

We gave permission? Fast forward to now. The prime minister and the defence minister say that we can’t throw out the US equipment and personnel because the Shamsi base does not belong to Pakistan, having been leased out to the UAE in 1992. According to this version, the operational control of the base was handed over to the US by the UAE, not Pakistan.

This is corroborated apparently by what the Pakistan Air Force representative told parliament in the in-camera session following the May 2 Abbottabad raid.

Then we have a 2005 US diplomatic cable which says the UAE government is displeased “at leak of reports about its military cooperation with the United States inside Pakistan” contained in American Soldier, a book by General Tommy Franks, former commander of US central command. Franks had written about the use by the US of Sheikh Zayed’s private airstrip in Balochistan.

The cable read: “UAE government desires to keep details of the UAE cooperation with the US military in Afghanistan and Pakistan confidential, because the government is concerned that public acknowledgement of this assistance could pose risks to the UAE security within the UAE or to UAE officials in Pakistan.”

Is Musharraf lying about having permitted the US the use of Shamsi and Jacobabad? Perhaps not. But let’s first raise a few more questions.

What is the nature of this lease? Is it a private international law agreement (PILA) or in the nature of a treaty? If it’s the former, which means an agreement between a government and a private party, then the government of the state to which the private party belongs can intervene and cancel the agreement. This happened in the F-16 case in which the government of Pakistan had entered into an agreement with the manufacturer of the aircraft. The US government, when it slapped sanctions on Pakistan, intervened in that agreement. Reko Diq in Balochistan is another case in point.

Even if the PILA is between the UAE government and the Balochistan government, the federal government can override it because Balochistan is a federating unit. We also don’t know whether the private party, if any, is on the Pakistani side or whether, in this case, the UAE’s royal family has entered as a private party into a lease agreement with Pakistan.

If, on the other hand, the lease is governed by a treaty, then it becomes a sovereign agreement and the nature of the debate changes. It would still be necessary to see whether such an agreement allows the UAE to sub-lease the use of the base to a third party. And if that be the case, whether a sub-lease would also require that the government of Pakistan agree to such arrangement. Nor do we know what constraints the third party will have to work with and who would monitor such compliance.

In the absence of any documents, one can only conjecture. But chances are that any sub-lease by the UAE would need the government of Pakistan’s permission. This is the only way we can square the contents of the US government diplomatic cable with the account given by Musharraf in his book.

This still leaves out the issue of whether the use of the base was confined to recovery of aircraft and logistics. We are now told the US could only mount surveillance flights but there is much evidence that the US also mounted attack flights from the base of MQ1-A Predators. Since when is the question.

The Predator drones had become weapons-capable before 9/11 happened. The first successful test was conducted in February 2001 at Nellis Air Force base. That the US had already begun planning taking out Osama bin Laden is proved by reports that in June 2001 a Hellfire AGM-114C missile was launched on a replica of bin Laden’s Afghanistan residence built at a Nevada test site. Flying from a base in Uzbekistan, it was in February 2002 that an MQ1-A was used to attack a convoy of SUVs inside Afghanistan.

It seems that this is where both the UAEG and the government of Pakistan have been dissembling. The base was handed over to the Americans and everyone was looking the other way over its use. One can’t be sure of when exactly the USG deployed the Predators at Shamsi but it is safe to assume that the base was primarily used for Predator flights. The story was first broken by Zahid Hussain in February 2009 for The Times of London.

It may be noted that when these birds were flying from Uzbekistan, even after the Predators had become weapons-capable, the USG could not operate armed flights until Uzbekistan permitted such flights. So, we can be sure that in this ménage à trois, all three parties were of age and consenting.

Except that now the situation has changed and the government of Pakistan wants an end to this arrangement. That is where the nature of the agreement with UAEG and its politics comes in. There is, of course, the overhang also of Pakistan-US relations, already at their lowest. It is, therefore, not just a matter of evicting the Americans but also dealing with the consequences of doing so vis-a-vis both the USG and the UAEG. Since no course of action is without its costs, it all depends on what it is that the actors consider their optimal and suboptimal choices and whether they are playing a nested game.

Finally, even if we consider Shamsi to be sovereign UAE territory which it could sub-lease to a third party, does a bird flying from Shamsi enter UAE airspace or Pakistan’s?

Published in The Express Tribune, July 5th, 2011.]]>
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			<title>Shamsi airbase never used to fire drones: PM</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/201583/shamsi-airbase-was-never-used-for-drone-attacks-pm-gilani</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/201583/shamsi-airbase-was-never-used-for-drone-attacks-pm-gilani#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Mon, 04 Jul 11 02:12:48 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[owais.jafri]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Pakistan]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=201583</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[Gilani reiterates Washington was given access to the base for surveillance purposes by previous government.]]>
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				<![CDATA[Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani asserted on Sunday that the US was never given access to Shamsi airbase for carrying out drone attacks, insisting that Washington was given access to the base only for surveillance purposes by the previous government.


Addressing a press conference which he had “specifically called to clarify some issues of national importance”, Prime Minister Gilani said that his government has raised the matter of Washington’s control over the base at the highest level with the US government.

Commenting on the ongoing spat between the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), the prime minister said that PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif’s “dream of mid-term elections being held in the country will never be fulfilled” as the political leadership is united on major issues. “It is time for the general elections not mid-term elections,” he said. “Nawaz Sharif better prepare for the next general elections,” he added.

Prime Minister Giani said his government has gotten three budgets approved and is planning for the fourth budget and will not let any party derail democracy. “Forces planning mischief must prepare for the general elections, they have no other choice,” he said.

The premier said that highs and lows are part of politics and the PPP will continue its policy of reconciliation as it is the ideology of its former chairman Benazir Bhutto. “Political matters keep changing on a daily basis but anything can be resolved through reconciliation,” he said.

Discussing the Muttahida Qaumi Moverment’s (MQM) decision to quit the coalition government, Prime Minister Gilani said the PPP will try once again to form coalition with the MQM. “It (MQM) has always supported the PPP, be it the 18th amendment, the 19th amendment or the NFC awards,” he added.

“No party can single-handedly solve Pakistan’s problems. Any future government will also be formed through coalitions because no single party would be able to make the government,” the prime minister said. He also stated that the PPP favours the formation of a Seraiki province while President Asif Ali Zardari has instructed that this policy be made a part of PPP manifesto.

Talking about the electricity crisis in the country, he said that electricity demand has increased due to a rise in the number of development projects. He claimed that 2,000 megawatts (MW) of electricity has been added to the national grid since the PPP government came into power. The prime minister vowed that an additional 2,000 MW of electricity will be added to the grid very soon.

He said that prices of petroleum have been raised due to a hike in global oil prices. He said that the increase in gas prices will not affect domestic users as they have been raised for the commercial sector to control the supply and demand of natural gas in the country. The prime minister said that 1,100 kilometre of the Iran-Pakistan gas pipeline has been constructed while he has given special instructions for the renovation and strengthening of dykes and embankments throughout the country. “We have been monitoring the flood situation closely in the country,” he added.

The prime minister also said that Pakistan’s relations with Afghanistan have been improving and that Islamabad has raised the issue of cross-border attacks by the Afghan military and militants in
bilateral talks.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 4th, 2011.]]>
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			<title>Confusion over Shamsi base</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/201053/confusion-over-shamsi-base</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/201053/confusion-over-shamsi-base#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Sat, 02 Jul 11 16:18:42 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[editorial]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Pakistan]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=201053</guid>
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				<![CDATA[Mr Mukhtar is not famous for accurate communication of the government view.]]>
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				<![CDATA[What can one say about the so-called Pakistani ‘communication’ to the US that it should leave the Shamsi airbase in Balochistan, except that there is confusion and much contradiction among the administrative domains in Pakistan? First, Defence Minister Ahmad Mukhtar told a group of journalists in Islamabad that Pakistan had asked the US to remove its troops from the base. This is what he said exactly: “When US forces will not operate from there, no drone attacks will be carried out. Islamabad has been pressuring the US to vacate the base even before the May 2 raid in which US Navy SEALs killed Osama bin Laden”. “After the raid”, he said, “we told them again”.

What he said afterwards created semantic if not factual confusion: “Pakistan has already stopped US drone operations there from the base”. If the drones don’t fly from the base, why ask the Americans to leave, unless something more than the drones was involved? Mukhtar proceeded to make it clearer: “It is time to review our anti-terror cooperation with the US”. The message was that Pakistan had reached a point of decisive action against US presence in Pakistan, earlier presaged by the removal of American trainers. The defence minister’s conversation communicated the intent of the Pakistan Army to curtail the country’s policy of cooperation with the US as per the angry joint resolution of parliament.

Then came the first damp squib. When asked whether US troops were vacating the Shamsi base, an official Washington spokesman said there was no such plan in the offing and that the US government had received no such request from Pakistan. This was flashed around the world as ‘American refusal to vacate the base’. When the mystery deepened over what exactly had happened, the Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Dr Firdous Ashiq Awan said the news about Pakistan asking the Americans to leave was a concoction of the media. She said she was a member of the defence committee and nothing of this sort was discussed during its meeting.

Mr Mukhtar is not famous for accurate communication of the government view. His last gaffe was after a high-powered government delegation returned from China. He announced that China had agreed to take over and run the Gwadar port, only to have the Chinese deny making any such commitment. It should be remembered that Mr Mukhtar is on record defending drone attacks at a time when they were becoming unpopular in Pakistan. His conversion to the anti-drone league now seems to have taken him a few paces ahead of the Pakistan Army which, according to Dr Awan, has not discussed Shamsi base.

Who is Mr Mukhtar listening to? As defence minister, he surely has more access to the way the army thinks than any other member of the cabinet. If he says something on a subject pertaining to American military presence in Pakistan, it is taken with more confidence than anything coming from the mouth of any other member of the cabinet. We realise that Awan was given the task of contradicting Mr Mukhtar because the blame had to be placed on the media, not him. But the truth is that it is the defence minister who has been ‘corrected’, and he is an important member of the cabinet, judging from the fact that he has been spared the PPP government’s telltale cabinet reshuffles explaining the pecking order of political power is Islamabad.

Shamsi base houses one of several airstrips developed by princes from the Gulf so that their planes could land in areas close to where they come in to hunt local animals such as houbaras. There are such bases in Rahimyar Khan and in Balochistan and it is quite clear that they can be used by our civil aviation authority for local travellers as well as by the army. The flying of drones from Shamsi base is needlessly made mysterious since WikiLeaks disclosures in recent months have made it clear that Pakistani rulers were not particularly perturbed by it till the joint session of the parliament got riled by them earlier this year. What is, however, disturbing is that there are binary views manifested inside our civilian-military establishment.

 

Published in The Express Tribune, July 3rd, 2011.]]>
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			<title>US refusal to vacate Shamsi airbase is a challenge for govt: Shahbaz Sharif</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/200983/us-refusal-to-vacate-shamsi-airbase-is-a-challenge-for-govt-shahbaz-sharif</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/200983/us-refusal-to-vacate-shamsi-airbase-is-a-challenge-for-govt-shahbaz-sharif#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Sat, 02 Jul 11 08:20:53 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[express]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Punjab]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=200983</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[CM Punjab says there is no doubt about the government being involved in corruption.]]>
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				<![CDATA[Chief Minister Punjab Shahbaz Sharif said on Saturday that America’s refusal to vacate the Shamsi airbase is a challenge for the government, Express News reported Saturday.

He was addressing the media at the Pakistan Paindabad conference in Al-Hamra hall. 


He further said that no one in particular can be blamed for the present conditions of Pakistan, however, he added "There is no doubt about the government involved in corruption."

Sharif said it’s time we accepted our shortcomings and deficiencies. "We should start finding ways out to overcome our inadequacies" he exclaimed.]]>
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			<title>Shamsi airbase: Firdous dismisses Mukhtar claim on US evacuation</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/200841/shamsi-airbase-firdous-dismisses-mukhtar-claim-on-us-evacuation</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/200841/shamsi-airbase-firdous-dismisses-mukhtar-claim-on-us-evacuation#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Sat, 02 Jul 11 03:13:05 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[asad.kharal]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Pakistan]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=200841</guid>
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				<![CDATA[Says defence minister’s statement asking US to vacate Shamsi airbase was ‘just for the media’.]]>
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				<![CDATA[Information Minister Firdous Ashiq Awan on Friday cast doubt on a statement made by the defence minister that the US had been asked to vacate the airbase in Balochistan used to launch drone strikes against suspected militants in the country.


Defence Minister Ahmed Mukhtar told a group of journalists on Wednesday that Pakistan had asked Washington to leave Shamsi airbase. Mukhtar told Reuters on Thursday that Islamabad had been pressing the US to leave the base even before the May 2 incursion in Abbottabad. After the raid, Mukhtar said: “We told them again.”

On Friday, the government tried to put the confusing story to rest. “It’s just a statement for the media,” Awan told a media gathering in Lahore, dismissing Mukhtar’s comments. “I am also a member of the defence committee and the matter was not discussed there.”

Reacting to Mukhtar’s earlier statement, US officials in Washington said there was no plan to evacuate the base. “That base is neither vacated nor being vacated,” said a US official familiar with the matter, asking for anonymity to discuss the sensitive information. The information was confirmed by a second US official.

Addressing the media at the Lahore Press Club, the information minister added that in case of any development, the matter would have to be placed before the defence cabinet committee (DCC), and since she was a member of the DCC, the issue would ultimately be brought to her knowledge, but nothing of the sort had surfaced yet. However, the minister categorically said that the Inter Services Public Relations (ISPR) and the defence minister were there to look into the matter.

Responding to a question regarding the MQM quitting the federal as well as provincial governments, and the possibility of it rejoining the alliance, Awan said that President Asif Ali Zardari was out of the country and a final strategy would be devised after his return. “However, in my personal opinion, the MQM will take the decision of remaining in the government or quitting the ruling alliance keeping in view party interests,” she said.

She refuted the impression that people would not benefit from the 18th amendment, since with the devolution of ministries to provinces, the issues of the public would be resolved at the local level.

WITH ADDITONAL INPUT FROM REUTERS

Published in The Express Tribune, July 2nd, 2011.]]>
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			<title>Reports of Pakistan demanding US exit Shamsi airbase bogus: Firdous</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/200346/us-rejects-demands-to-vacate-shamsi-airbase</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/200346/us-rejects-demands-to-vacate-shamsi-airbase#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Fri, 01 Jul 11 11:40:46 +0500</pubDate>
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				<![CDATA[express]]>
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			<category><![CDATA[Pakistan]]></category>
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				<![CDATA[Defence Minister Ahmed Mukhtar was earlier quoted in the media stating the US had been asked to exit Shamsi base.]]>
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				<![CDATA[Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Dr Firdous Ashiq Awan on Thursday said news of Pakistan demanding the United States exit Shamsi Airbase was bogus and had been created by the media, Express News reported.

Speaking to the media in Lahore, Awan said that she was a member of the Defence Committee and nothing of this sort was discussed during the meeting.

Earlier this week, Pakistani Defense Minister Ahmed Mukhtar told the Financial Times that Pakistan had already stopped US drone operations there.

The minister also told a group of journalists in Islamabad that it was time to review anti-terror cooperation with the US.

“We have told them [US officials] to leave the airbase,” APP quoted Mukhtar as saying.

On Thursday, Mukhtar told Reuters: “When they (US forces) will not operate from there, no drone attacks will be carried out.” He said Islamabad had been pressuring the US to vacate the base even before the May 2 commando raid in which US Navy SEAL commandos killed Osama bin Laden. After the raid, Mukhtar said, “We told them again.”

Reuters reported the United States had rejected demands from Pakistani officials that American personnel abandon the military base used by the CIA to stage drone strikes against suspected militants.

US personnel have not left the remote Pakistani military installation known as Shamsi Air Base and there is no plan for them to do so, said a US official familiar with the matter, who asked for anonymity to discuss sensitive material.

“That base is neither vacated nor being vacated,” the official said.

The information was confirmed by a second US official. The US declaration that drone operations in Pakistan will continue unabated is the latest twist in a fraught relationship between security authorities in Washington and Islamabad, which has been under increasing strain for months.]]>
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			<title>Pakistan tells US to leave Shamsi airbase</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/199348/pakistan-tells-us-to-leave-shamsi-airbase</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/199348/pakistan-tells-us-to-leave-shamsi-airbase#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Thu, 30 Jun 11 02:30:48 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[kamran.yousaf]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Pakistan]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=199348</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[Defence minister says it is time to review anti-terror cooperation with Washington.]]>
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				<![CDATA[Pakistan is pushing the US to abandon an airbase in Balochistan that the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) has reportedly been using for years to undertake its drone campaign inside the country’s tribal areas, the defence minister said.


Defence Minister Ahmed Mukhtar’s statement confirming that the US had been told to leave the Shamsi airbase is the latest indication of the simmering tensions between the key war-on-terror allies.

The minister told a group of journalists in Islamabad on Wednesday that it was time to review the anti-terror cooperation with the US.

“We have told them [US officials] to leave the airbase,” APP quoted Mukhtar as saying.

Pakistan first asked the CIA to vacate the airbase early this year when the two countries negotiated to redefine their cooperation after an American contactor shot at and killed two Pakistanis in Lahore.

Islamabad pressed its demand harder after last month’s overnight-raid by US Navy SEALs in Abbottabad that killed former al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden.

The move by the security establishment was part of its efforts to reduce US footprints on Pakistani soil.

It is still unclear whether at all, or when, the Americans would abandon the facility they have been using since former president Pervez Musharraf first allowed them to operate from it back in 2006.

Meanwhile, there were more signs of escalating tensions between Washington and Islamabad as the Pakistani military hit back at US generals accusing it of being lax on militants.

A statement by the military’s public relations wing rebuked a statement by top US generals in a testimony before the Senate’s arms service committee.

“We reject allegations leveled by senior US military officials as reported in a section of the press casting aspersions on the desire and capability of the Pakistan army to fight militancy,” said the statement by the Inter Services Public Relations (ISPR).

Lieutenant General John Allen, named the next commander in Afghanistan, suggested Pakistan was keeping its options open by allowing Haqqani fighters to operate within its borders.

“It’s a function, probably, of capacity. But it might also be a function of their hedging, whether they have determined that the US is going to remain in Afghanistan and whether our strategy will be successful or not,” Allen told the Senate Armed Services Committee.

But Pakistani military rejected the comments terming them “uncalled for”.

“Our concerns and constraints must be taken into consideration before making any statement questioning our commitment to fighting militancy,” the ISPR statement added.

The reaction by the Pakistani military appeared to be indicating that both countries were facing a severe trust deficit in terms of who should spearhead a so-called reconciliation process in Afghanistan.

Mukhtar also admitted that the level of trust deficit was the highest in 10 years, but suggested it could be reduced through constant engagement.

“This trust deficit could be reduced by sitting together and taking joint actions,” he told the media.

On Tuesday, US vice admiral William McRaven, who oversaw the Bin Laden raid, said the US military believes that Taliban supreme leader Mullah Omar is in Pakistan and had asked the Pakistani army to locate him.

Asked about Omar, Mukhtar said: “Even if he was in Pakistan, he would have left the country after the Abbottabad incident.” 

 

Published in The Express Tribune, June 30th, 2011.]]>
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