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No alternative to cooperating with
Pakistan: NATO chief
ISLAMABAD: Nato Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen urged
Western governments to continue to work with Pakistan against extremists,
according to a report published in The
Financial Times on Tuesday.His call comes amid growing US pressure for Pakistan to take action against militants, with specific regard to the Haqqani network. Rasmussen was speaking at the World Affairs Council in Atlanta, USA. He declined to comment on Admiral Mike Mullen’s allegations that the Pakistan Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) was supporting the Haqqani network to battle US troops in Afghanistan. In an unprecedented condemnation of Pakistan, the outgoing head of the US military, Mike Mullen, last month accused Pakistan of “exporting” violent extremism to Afghanistan through proxies. At a defence forum hosted by the European Policy Centre think tank last month, the Nato General Secretary called for “positive engagement” from Islamabad to ensure stability in Afghanistan. “We encourage the Pakistani military and the Pakistani government to do its utmost to fight extremism and terrorism in the border region,” Rasmussen said. Rasmussen told FT that despite questions raised by the killing of al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden on Pakistani soil, he sees “no alternative” to co-operating with Pakistan in war against terrorism. Regarding the allegations, he said: “Pakistan must deal with it and make sure terrorists don’t have safe havens in Pakistan, and we need a close partnership and a positive partnership with Pakistan.” The Nato chief expressed appreciation for efforts so far by Pakistan’s military to fight militants in its border region with Afghanistan. He said he still considered Pakistan “a partner” in Nato’s Afghan campaign and believed the Pakistani government could be motivated o take a more hardline stance towards the Haqqani network.
UN council seat: Islamabad
in bid to get Kyrgyzstan to drop out of race
Khar, acting as a special envoy to the prime minister, is to meet President Roza Otunbayeva and return to Islamabad the same day, officials told The Express Tribune. Even though Pakistan is confident of winning the seat, Kyrgyzstan has not yet dropped out of the race – ignoring repeated requests to do so in favour of Pakistan, a Foreign Office source said. Earlier this year Kyrgyzstan rebuffed a plea by Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani for it to renounce its candidature, arguing that playing a role in world diplomacy was a priority for a fledgling democracy. Islamabad is willing to offer Kyrgyzstan a token of goodwill if it agrees to withdraw its bid for a seat, the official said. Meanwhile Pakistan expects India to vote against Kyrgyzstan for the 2012-2013 seat, for which elections are scheduled on October 21. Pakistan had voted for India for the same seat during the 2010-2011 elections as part of a mutual understanding reached between the two countries. The presence of Indian Minister for External Affairs S M Krishna, along with his delegation, at a reception hosted by Khar in New York last month was taken as a goodwill gesture by Islamabad on Delhi’s part. Keeping in view US and Nato troops withdrawal from Afghanistan due to take place from 2012 to 2014, it is essential for Pakistan to win the Asian seat of the Security Council, a foreign office official said. It is also essential for Pakistan to secure a UN Security Council office to counter the global hostile environment in the context of the fight against terrorism, he added. The foreign minister, during her visit to the 66th United Nations General Assembly session, made hectic efforts to win US backing but officials in the foreign office are pessimistic about Washington’s support. “The five permanent members of the Security Council will not openly support any of the candidates till the last minute,” another official in the foreign office said. Former Pakistani diplomat Munir Akram is of the view that Kyrgyzstan was in fact sponsored by the United States against Pakistan.
Foreign
investment falls sharply
KARACHI: The foreign investment further fell by 49 per cent in the
first quarter of the current fiscal 2012.The country has been facing serious erosion of confidence that is even evident from poor domestic investment, which crippled the economy to remain growing at around 2 per cent. The State Bank reported on Monday that the foreign investment fell to $236 million during July-Sept, while it was $406 million in the same period of last year, a fall of 49 per cent. The foreign direct investment (FDI) fell by over 28 per cent to $282 million compared to $395 million during the same period last year. The FDI has already shrunk to a negligible level, while comparing it with the massive inflows in other developing countries like India, Brazil, China, and Thailand, etc. Being a home to 180 million people, Pakistan is considered to be a very large market with vast potential of even most attractive commodity like oil and gas. Investment analysts in their research papers said that the war-like-situation in the North and insurgency in Balochistan as well as deteriorating law and order across the country had vanished attractions for foreign investors. Local entrepreneurs said foreign investors never turned to a country where domestic investors remain inactive. Serious lack of revenue generation has widened the fiscal gap. In the absence of foreign inflows, the country has no option but to print notes and destabilise the economy. The equity market also witnessed a net outflow of $46.5 million compared to net inflow of $65 million during the said period. The country has been surviving on remittances being sent by overseas Pakistanis as most of the foreign inflows have dried up. The negotiations with the IMF to get the release of the stuck-up amount have also failed. Under the Standby Agreement with the IMF, the country was expecting to receive $11.3 billion but the IMF stopped further delivery of loans last year. It showed serious reservations on widening fiscal gap and huge government borrowing from the State Bank that kept inflation high. The country has so far received $8.940 billion out of this total $11.3 billion from IMF while repayment could be more inflicting for the country’s foreign exchange reserves. The repayment will begin from early next year. The details show the most of the foreign inflows have been coming for oil and gas exploration, energy sector and telecom. These sectors have been the focal point for investments for several years but they have also lost attraction as the amount involved has reduced to the negligible level.
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