Musharraf wants US to stop casting aspersions on Pakistan Army and ISI

Musharraf wants US to stop casting aspersions on Pakistan Army and ISI

Former Pakistan President General (R) Pervez Musharraf while speaking at The Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington, DC stressed the need for the US to tone down its criticism on Pakistan Army and its elite spy agency the Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) for allegedly collaborating with anti-American militant group known as the Haqqani network that has been active in targeting allied forces in Afghanistan.

The former President said that the ISI, which is “so maligned now”, had lost 350 personnel in terrorist attacks, and had helped save a lot of lives around the world by being instrumental in disrupting global terror plots.

Vis a vis allegations of ISI supporting the Haqqani Network, Musharraf said that there may be a difference in tactical handling and opinion in the ISI, but that cannot be used to cast aspersions against the Army and the ISI that they were arming the Haqqani Network to attack US soldiers in Afghanistan.

The former President said that Pakistan had two questions to answer in front of the world.

The first was why Osama Bin Laden was in Pakistan, which he claimed, was a case of negligence. Musharraf disputed that he did not even believe Osama Bin Laden was in Pakistan for a total period of 5 years, and said that he was 500% sure that he did not know.

Secondly, the former President said, Pakistan must explain to the world and the United States why they’re not acting against the Haqqani Network.

The Haqqanis are blamed for carrying out attacks on the US embassy in Afghanistan in September which made people in the White House extremely unhappy regarding Pakistan’s efforts to stamp out terrorist hideouts on their side of the border.

Highlighting the civilian casualties in Pakistan over the years in terrorist attacks, Musharraf said that the United States’ demand to “do more” was “very annoying for people in Pakistan”. He added that relations between the United States and Pakistan were at its lowest ebb, which was unfortunate.

He added that the United States must also make clear as to what kind of Afghanistan they’re leaving behind when the withdrawal takes place from the region in 2014.

Short URL: https://www.newspakistan.pk/?p=1646

Posted by Ammar Ahmad on Oct 26 2011. Filed under Pakistan. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry