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ISLAMABAD/KARACHI:
The prime minister has
simmered down, but not
enough to confirm Pakistan’s
attendance at the Bonn
conference.
Hints of flexibility came after
much insistence from German
Chancellor Angela Merkel for
Pakistan to reconsider
boycotting the meeting on the
Afghan endgame.
However, the only assurance
that Prime Minister Yousaf Raza
Gilani gave Merkel was that
Pakistan’s ambassador to
Germany could attend the
conference, but only if the
parliamentary committee on
national security approves.
He turned down Merkel’s request
that Foreign Minister Hina
Rabbani Khar attend the
conference, while Khar herself
told a Senate foreign relations
committee that Pakistan’s
decision was final.
In a special meeting in Lahore on
Tuesday, the cabinet had agreed
to boycott the conference on
the Afghan endgame in protest
of Nato’s attack in Mohmand
Agency that killed 24 troops in
the deadliest assault in a decade.
The calls from the international
community to attend the
conference were led by
Washington. US Secretary of
State Hillary Clinton said Pakistan
should reconsider its decision,
but stopped short of
apologising for the deaths of
the 24 soldiers.
“Nothing will be gained by
turning our backs on mutually
beneficial cooperation. Frankly it
is regrettable that Pakistan has
decided not to attend the
conference,” Clinton told a news
conference in South Korea.
Clinton voiced regret over
Pakistan’s decision, pledging an
investigation “as swiftly and
thoroughly as possible” into the
“tragic incident” and hoping it
would find a “follow-up way”
to take part in talks on
Afghanistan’s future. “What is
most important I think is that
we learn lessons from this
tragedy because we have to
continue to work together,” she
said.
Afghanistan has also asked
Pakistan to reconsider its
decision. Speaking to journalists
in Karachi about his
conversation with Afghan
President Hamid Karzai, Gilani
said, “I replied that the territory
of Afghanistan was being used
against Pakistan and he said it
was done by Nato and I told him
to talk to the US about it.”
“I told him that we have to
protect our country and work
for its security and defence. If
we go to Bonn for you, then
who will guarantee our
security? We cannot just go like
this,” he added.
Meanwhile, news from Kabul
indicated that Pakistan had
resumed some cooperation with
US-led forces in Afghanistan.
Nato said Islamabad
communicated with the alliance
to prevent an exchange of
artillery fire late on Tuesday
from turning into another
international incident. German
Brig Gen Carsten Jacobson, a
Nato spokesman in Kabul,
expressed hope that Pakistan’s
cooperation in resolving the
incident in eastern
Afghanistan’s Paktia province
signaled the two sides could
recover from the recent
tragedy.
Meanwhile, Gilani said the
government has asked the US to
evacuate the Shamsi airbase by
Dec 11.
Speaking to journalists after
inaugurating the UAE expo 2011
ceremony, Gilani said: “We have
given the Nato forces a deadline
and asked them to stop drone
attacks because we cannot play
a significant role in a war which
damages our sovereignty. We
need a guarantee that such
attacks will not happen again,
otherwise we cannot
cooperate.”
In Lahore, Information Minister
Firdous Ashiq Awan put the
blame on the Pakistan Muslim
League-Nawaz for leasing the
base to the US and said the
Shamsi Airbase was leased in
1998 when the PML-N’
government was in power.