Islamabad: Pakistani prime minister Yousaf Raza Gilani asked foreign minister Hina Rabbani Khar to cut short her visit to the US and return immediately, amid straining relations after American officials alleged links between Pakistan’s ISI and the Haqqani terror network. Khar has in the past two days rebutted the charges strongly, saying Washington should not make Pakistan a scapegoat for its failed objectives.
Khar, who was representing Pakistan at the UN General Assembly in New York, was expected to fly back to Islamabad tonight, TV news channels quoted official sources as saying. There was no official word on the development which follows US allegations that ISI “supported and encouraged” its“veritable
arm” Haqqani terror network to launch attacks in Afghanistan.
Gilani had earlier called off his visit to the US and sent Khar in his place. Though the official line was that he stayed back to oversee flood relief, reports said the trigger was US President Barack Obama’s refusal to meet him on UN sidelines.
Khar had been called back to Pakistan as her presence is vital for a meeting of the country’s political leadership to be convened by the premier, the official sources were quoted as saying. She was the only member of the civilian leadership to have had direct contact with US officials regarding allegations of the ISI backing the Haqqani network and running a proxy war in Afghanistan.
The foreign minister would meet both Gilani and president Asif Ali Zardari on her return, reports said. Earlier in the day, Pakistani Army chief Gen Ashfaq Parvez Kayani chaired a six-hour special meeting of his Corps Commanders to review the security situation. There was no official word on what transpired during the meeting but Geo News channel reported that the army commanders rejected the US accusations and decided to give a “fitting response” to any cross-border attacks by militants based in Afghanistan. AGENCIES
AQ implicated Pak, China on N-policy
In an angry, bitter letter he wrote to his wife, Pakistan’s nuclear architect A Q Khan has seriously implicated the Pakistani military and the Chinese government in proliferation of nuclear technology and material, and instructed her to take a “tough stand” if Pakistani establishment “plays any mischief with me”. “Tell them the bastards first used us and now playing dirty games with us,” Khan concludes in a letter to his Dutch wife Henny.
No comments:
Post a Comment