Pakistan ready to act against safe
havens: US
WASHINGTON: Pakistan has signalled its readiness to deal with
terrorists operating within its borders as well as with those who cross over to
Afghanistan, US Defence Secretary Leon Panetta said on Tuesday.The statement followed a clarification by officials of the Defence and State Departments of a Pentagon report that tended to create an impression that Pakistan was still allowing terrorist safe havens in Fata to operate.
The officials said the report was old and since then Pakistan had carried out several “complementary operations” with Afghan and Nato forces against the terrorists.
“We are more encouraged with the fact that they want to take steps to try to limit the terrorist threat within their own country and obviously the threat that goes across the border” to Afghanistan, Mr Panetta told reporters travelling with him to Kuwait.
He said that army chief Gen Ashfaq Parvez Kayani had “indicated a willingness to try to put more pressure on safe havens”.
While “actions have to speak louder than words, I do believe they’re in a better place because they understand the kind of threats they should deal with,” Mr Panetta added.
A Pentagon report, released to the media on Monday but sent to Congress three months ago, had alleged that terrorist safe havens in Fata were preventing US and allied forces from dealing a “decisive defeat” to militants inside Afghanistan.
“The Taliban-led insurgency and its al Qaeda affiliates still operate from sanctuaries in Pakistan,” the report claimed. “The insurgency’s safe havens in Pakistan, the limited institutional capacity of the Afghan government and endemic corruption remain the greatest risks to long-term stability and sustainable security in Afghanistan.”
The Pakistan Embassy in Washington drew the Pentagon’s attention to the report, widely publicised by the media, pointing out that it did not reflect the improvements that have occurred since July this year.
In July, the United States had apologised to Pakistan over an air raid that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers last year and Islamabad reopened the supply routes to Afghanistan it had closed after the attack.
Since then the two countries have taken a number of steps to improve ties and this month they held a series of working group meetings to restart the US-Pakistan strategic dialogue after more than a year.
Secretary Panetta also acknowledged that Pakistan was helping Afghanistan in talking to the Taliban for seeking a peaceful solution to the Afghan conflict.
But reconciliation with the Taliban, he said, was not easy because of the number of factions involved in the conflict. “We have to at least make the effort to develop some kind of political solution as well as the military effort we are engaged in.”
PENTAGON REPORT CLARIFIED: At the Pentagon, two senior Defence and State Department officialsbriefed the media on the report sent to Congress, explaining that relations with Pakistan had improved considerably since the reporting period.
The report was apparently prepared before July, when the two countries took several significant steps to improve ties.
“We’re very encouraged by the dialogue that’s taking place between Afghanistan and Pakistan. And an important and essential part of that dialogue is the cross-border situation,” said a senior State Department official.
“So we hope that dialogue will continue. We hope and expect to see confidence-building measures from both the Afghans, and the Pakistanis.”
The United States wants to encourage that dialogue is in the interest of peace and stability “to the extent that can be helpful”, he said.
“Cooperation with Pakistan has improved during this reporting period. Pakistan agreed to reopen the ground lines of communication, which were closed in November of last year,” observed a senior Defence Department official.
Meetings with Pakistan, both bilaterally between Isaf forces, and Pakistani military forces, and trilaterally with Afghan military forces, were also going well, he added.
The official noted that Nato forces were now conducting “a growing number of complementary operations” with Pakistan, which in the last reporting had virtually ceased.
“At the same time, I don’t want to leave you with the impression that we think everything is working well, because the safe havens do continue to exist,” the official warned.
LATEST/BRIEF NEWS:
PAKISTAN (Brief News):
o
India to press Pak for Singh release
o
Want to expand ties with France:
Zardari
o
OGRA, CNG association talks fail
o
Sitar maestro Pandit Ravi Shankar dies
o
Another hand grenade attack in
Manghopir
o
Karachi: Cracker attacks in Mianawali Colony
o
Pakistan jumps to fifth spot in FIH
rankings after bronze medal
o
Karachi: Police constable, security
guard held in bank robbery case
o
Kashmir resolution vital for Pak-India
peace
o
Rehman Malik may meet Singh and Sonia
o
Govt
visualises prosperous future for Fata, says PM
o
Rain turns weather chilly in Capital
o
Pakistan wooing foreign investors for
petroleum exploration
o
Lion of circus cant stop
tsunami: Imran
o
UK govt nothing to do with Dr Imran
murder probe
o
Cases against Zardari cant be opened:
Naek
o
Bill on judges' dual nationality under
consideration
o
PM stresses building Pak, Afghan trust
WOLRD(Brief News):
o
HSBC to pay record $1.9 billion U.S.
fine in money laundering case
o
Nine hurt as gunmen fire at Cairo
protesters
o
Italy's Monti leaves
political future open
o
Isolated Philippine typhoon victims
running out of food
o
Exclusive: After fire, Wal-Mart vows
to tighten source safeguards
o
Syria rebels hope arms will flow to
new fighter command
o
Analysis: Japan's Abe gets
second chance at loosening limits on military
o
Israel raids Palestinian NGO offices
o
Obama takes his case to people for
"fiscal cliff" deal
o
Chavez faces cancer surgery in Cuba,
vows he'll be back
o
Google's Gmail service
suffers disruption
o
Strauss-Kahn, NYC hotel maid settle
suit over alleged sexual assault
o
Syria rebels hope arms will flow to
new fighter command
o
Europe backs Monti reforms as Italy
crisis hits markets
o
Iranian nuclear challenge must be
tackled in 2013: Israel
o
Insight: Congo army debacle at Goma
raises specter of betrayal
o
Ghana's Mahama reaches out to
defeated rivals
o
Google's GMail service
suffers disruption
o
Cairo faces rival protests over
constitution crisis
o
Strauss-Kahn, NYC hotel maid settle
civil lawsuit over alleged assault
o
EU mulling how to dissuade Israel from
settlement expansion
o
Egypt army gets temporary power to
arrest civilians
WOLRD BUSINESS(Brief News):
o
Britain says won't stand in
way of Nexen-CNOOC deal
o
European shares dip, euro steady ahead
of ZEW, Fed
o
India state oil firms press ahead with
Canada oil sands bid
o
Strikes hit S.Africa's
October gold output hard
o
S.Africa manufacturing up 2.5 pct y/y
in October
o
HSBC to pay record $1.9 billion U.S.
fine in money laundering case
o
Greek banks set to top up bids to meet
buyback target
o
Stock futures signal early gains
o
Barclays Spanish unit fined for
mis-rating bonds
o
Tullow spends up to $670 mln on Norway
deal, to exit UK
o
Ethiopian inflation inches down to
15.6 pct in November
o
S.Africa's formal sector
employment up 0.1 pct in Q3
o
Wal-Mart under fire in India,
government signals probe
o
Burned Bangladesh factory was warned
twice on fire safety
o
HSBC shares open down 0.3 percent
after U.S. fines
Business News:
PM to be briefed on trade policy
ISLAMABAD, Dec 11: The announcement of the trade policy is being
delayed because of divergent views within different arms of the government,
especially on core issue of subsidy which was initially projected at Rs60
billion for a period of three years.“We will give a briefing to the premier on Dec 21 on the proposed trade
policy,” Commerce Secretary Muneer Qureshi told Dawn on Tuesday.This will be the second briefing to the premier by the commerce ministry after the first one that was held on Aug 28.
It appears to be the last attempt of the commerce ministry to involve Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf for an early finalisation of the three-year Strategic Trade Policy Framework 2012-15.
After a green signal from the premier, the summary would be sent to the cabinet for approval, ahead of its announcement.
Finance Minister Dr Hafeez Shaikh and Deputy Chairman of Planning Commission Dr Nadeem Ul Haq were opposing the commerce ministry proposal seeking Rs60 billion for supporting the vulnerable sectors to increase their exports from the country.
The first pertinent question facing policymakers is how much money can be spared by the cash-strapped finance ministry for subsidy.
Secondly, how well-established is the efficacy of the subsidy regime in producing quality of exportable goods at globally competitive price.
Thirdly, the tenure of the present government would end on March 16.
Can it present a trade policy for three years, when a new government is installed in May next year?
To address these and other questions, the premier had constituted a committee, headed by the finance minister to look into all these issues.
“We have held a series of meetings on these issues and developed consensus on subsidy component of the trade policy,” an official of the commerce ministry said.
However, he avoided disclosing the exact amount but said it would be less than Rs30 billion for a period of three years.
Experts say continuation or otherwise of any export support scheme should be determined by a performance-based audit.
There are widespread reports of export subsidy having been diverted to unintended purposes in the past.
One of the major proposals of the proposed trade policy is establishment of an export-import bank perhaps as an anchor of the new trade policy framework.
The aim is to enhance access to export credit, supplier’s credit and export credit guarantees on the plea that commercial banks are not specialised in handling export businesses and also have no inclination to provide such services.
The investment in setting up the EXIM bank is projected at Rs25 billion spread over a period of three years.
However, the commerce ministry has projected a seed money of Rs5 billion.
Exim banks are operating in India, Bangladesh, China and Vietnam etc, which are stated to be the main competitors of Pakistan in textile and clothing and some other products in the international markets.
The establishment of the bank was a much-awaited demand of exporters.
Pakistan
EXCHANGE FOR CURRENCY NOTES:
U.S.A 97.97
S.Arabia 26.12
U.K 157.47
Japan 1.1896
Euro 126.69
U.A.E 26.67
BULLION RATES IN
RUPEES PER 10 GRAMS
KARACHI
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
No comments:
Post a Comment