ZAHEER ABBASI
ISLAMABAD: A meeting of the National Security Committee (NSC) has expressed serious concern over recent statement by the US leadership and observed that Pakistan cannot be held responsible for the collective failure in Afghanistan and that blaming allies certainly does not serve the shared objective of achieving lasting peace in Afghanistan and the region. Over three-hour long huddle between civil and military leadership of the country presided over by Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi on Tuesday reviewed emerging strategic situation in the region and beyond subsequent to the US President’s latest statement. The meeting was of the firm view that the real challenges in Afghanistan are political infighting, massive corruption, phenomenal growth of drug production and expansion of ungoverned spaces inside Afghanistan full of sanctuaries for multiple international terrorist organizations, posing a serious and direct threat to Afghanistan, its neighbors and the entire region.
President Trump on January 1, 2018 launched the latest tirade against Pakistan through a tweet, saying: “The United States has foolishly given Pakistan more than $33 billion in aid over the last 15 years, and they have given us nothing but lies & deceit, thinking of our leaders as fools. They give safe haven to the terrorists we hunt in Afghanistan, with little help. No more!”
A statement issued after the meeting stated that NSC reached a consensus that despite all unwarranted allegations, Pakistan cannot act in haste and will remain committed to playing a constructive role towards an Afghan-led and Afghan-owned peace process, not just for the sake of its own people, but also for the peace and security of the region and international community. The committee reaffirmed that Pakistanis are a people who hold dear their national pride, who are capable of defending their country, and who have demonstrated exceptional commitment to counter terrorism and work for regional peace and stability.
The meeting was attended by Chairman Joint Chief of Staff Committee (CJCSC) General Zubair Mehmood Hayat, Chief of the Army Staff (COAS) General Qamar Javed Bajwa, Chief of the Naval Staff Admiral Zafar Mahmood Abbasi, Chief of the Air Staff Air Chief Marshall Sohail Aman, Minister for Foreign Affairs Khawaja Muhammad Asif, Minister for Interior Prof Ahsan Iqbal, Minister for Defence Khurram Dastgir, Advisor to the Prime Minister on Finance, Revenue and Economic Affairs Miftah Ismail, National Security Advisor Lt Gen Nasser Khan Janjua (retd), Pakistan’s Ambassador to the US Aizaz Ahmad Chaudhry, and other senior civil and military officials.
The NSC meeting noted its deep disappointment with some of the recent statements articulated by the American leadership. The committee observed that the close interaction with the US leadership following the initial pronouncement of President Trump’s policy on South Asia had been useful in creating a better understanding of each other’s perspectives on the best way forward to achieve durable peace and stability in Afghanistan. The visits of Secretary Tillerson and Secretary Mattis were also seen by the committee as robust and forward-looking.
The meeting observed that given this positive direction of progression, recent statements and articulation by the American leadership were completely incomprehensible as they contradicted facts manifestly, struck with great insensitivity at the trust between two nations built over generations, and negated the decades of sacrifices made by the Pakistani nation – a nation that has contributed so significantly to regional and global security and peace.
The participants noted that over the past several years, Pakistan’s counterterrorism campaign has served as a bulwark against possible expansion of scores of terrorist organizations currently present in Afghanistan - a fact acknowledged by US authorities at the highest levels. The NSC further observed that most of these terrorists have repeatedly launched cross-border attacks against innocent Pakistanis with impunity by exploiting presence of millions of Afghan refugees in Pakistan, a porous Pak-Afghan border and large tracts of ungoverned spaces inside Afghanistan.
The meeting also observed that Pakistan has fought the war against terrorism primarily out of its own resources and at a great cost to its economy, and that even more importantly the huge sacrifices made by Pakistan, including the loss of tens of thousands of lives of Pakistani civilians and security personnel, and the pain of their families, could not be trivialized so heartlessly by pushing all of it behind a monetary value – and that too an imagined one.
The NSC stated that even today Pakistan is firmly supporting the US-led international effort in Afghanistan; that it was continuously facilitating this through vital lines of communications for smooth counterterrorism operations in Afghanistan by the international coalition; that as a result of Pakistan’s counterterrorism cooperation, al Qaeda had been decimated in the region; and that it was mostly because of this support that Pakistan is suffering a brutal backlash, including the killing of hundred of its schoolchildren by terrorists based in Afghanistan.
