‘No US pressure to mount Waziristan offensive’

Pakistan insists it has a 'home-grown' strategy to combat militancy.

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan on Thursday denied that it was under US pressure to launch an offensive against the militants in the North Waziristan Agency, insisting the country has a ‘home-grown’ strategy to fight militancy.

“What Pakistan will do, will be in our national interest,” said the Foreign Office spokesman Abdul Basit in response to reports that the Obama administration was exerting renewed pressure on the country to go after the militants in North Waziristan.

His remarks came as US reports indicate that Washington is working on a new $2 billion aid package for the military in an effort to persuade it to eliminate al Qaeda ‘safe havens’ from North Waziristan.

The spokesman insisted that Pakistan would not launch a military operation at the behest of the US. “Pakistan will not hesitate to undertake a full-scale operation, if so required, but its time and scope will be decided by us and by us alone in consonance with our national interests,” he said.

He also brushed aside the impression that Pakistan was indifferent to the situation in North Waziristan.

“We are doing whatever is required to be done. There are already 34,000 Pakistani troops in North Waziristan,” he added. On increased US drone attacks in the tribal areas, the spokesman voiced hope that Washington would revisit its policy and find alternatives to Predator strikes, without affecting “our collective efforts against terrorism and militancy.”

Basit also rejected allegations levelled by Zalmay Khalilzad, the former US envoy to Afghanistan, that Pakistan was impeding the Afghan reconciliation process as ‘far-fetched and baseless’.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 22^nd, 2010.