Pakistan denounces NATO’s leaked report

 

The media in Britain has carried a story based on NATO’s Intelligence Report, in which allegations have been levelled against Pakistan for backing Taliban. The NATO’s allegations have been strongly rejected by Pakistan as one-sided and baseless. The Foreign Minister of Pakistan has rightly said that the report should be disregarded as a potentially strategic leak and the blame game should stop as it serves nobody’s interest. NATO and Pakistan have an established mechanism for intelligence sharing. The calculated leak about their intelligence report to the Western Media is a part of campaign to malign Pakistan, divert attention from their failures in Afghanistan and make Pakistan as a scapegoat.

 

Pakistan has suffered the most in terms of human and economic losses as a result of joining the international efforts against terrorism. The unfounded accusation are regrettable, keeping in view the safe passage that Pakistan provided free of charge for almost a decade to the NATO’s logistic supplies for its forces in Afghanistan.

 

It has been noted that vilification campaign against Pakistan has increased ever since logistic supplies were stopped by Pakistan due to NATO’s 26 November attack in which 24 Pakistanis soldiers were martyred. Militants’ incursions from across the Afghan borders have also increased inflicting heavy losses on Pakistanis. The area from where the incursions are taking place are under the watch of International and Afghan Forces.

 

We also see this campaign an attempt to keep Pakistan out of reconciliation process. Pakistan has highest stakes in the stability in Afghanistan. A stable Afghanistan is in Pakistan’s interest. The Foreign Minister underlined while talking to the media that Pakistan stands behind any initiative that the Afghan government takes for peace and that we have no hidden agenda in Afghanistan. We consider any threat to Afghanistan’s independence and sovereignty as a threat to Pakistan’s existence.

 

It would be in everyone’s interest that the US and its Allies make efforts to remove suspicions and build trust with Pakistan. This is the only way forward. Media’s constructive and responsible role is crucial to attaining peace in the region.

 

 

Pakistan High Commission, London

February 1, 2012

 

Last updated: 2 February 2012