FM says no pact with US on drone attacks in Pakistan

ISLAMABAD - Minister for Foreign Affairs Shah Mehmood Qureshi Monday categorically refuted that there was a tacit understanding with the United States over predators’ attacks into Pakistan territory from Afghanistan-based coalition forces.
Replying to a point of order raised by PML-N MNA Ahsan Iqbal over a story published in Washington Post, the Foreign Minister told the National Assembly that there was no tacit understanding with the United States over predators attacks from coalition forces from Afghanistan side.
He said that Pakistan’s stance on coalition forces attacks inside Pakistan was very clear and it had been reiterated both nationally and internationally time and again, adding that President of Pakistan Asif Zardari had made Pakistan position clear during his recent meeting with US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.
The Minister said that the Government of Pakistan was using diplomatic channels for implementation of Joint Parliamentary Resolution on National Security.
He said that NATO Secretary General had dissociated from the predators attacks inside Pakistan. He told the House even US think tanks had opposed this policy and added that the coming US administration had promised to review the policy regarding predators’ attacks.
Shah Mehmood Qureshi said that he had been in contact with the Governments of UK, France, Germany and Italy, which understood the Pakistan’s position.
Washington Post had reported on Sunday that the US and Pakistani Governments had reached a tacit agreement on predator strikes on Pakistani territory, under which Islamabad allowed them while continuing to complain about them and Washington never acknowledged them.
Citing unnamed senior officials in both the countries, the newspaper said that under this don’t-ask-don’t-tell policy, unmanned US drones had fired missiles at Pakistani soil at an average rate of once every four or five days recently.
It said that the deal coincided with a suspension of ground assaults into Pakistan by US Special Forces, the report said. The paper said Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari told it in an interview last week that he was aware of no ground attacks since one on September 3 that his government vigorously protested.
The newspaper quoted a senior Pakistani official as saying that the US-Pak understanding over the air strikes was “the smart middle way for the moment.”
It said that the former President Pervez Musharraf, “Gave lip-service but not effective support” to the Americans.