PM Gilani on Monday said Pakistan wants to have relations with US based on mutual respect

He also said that the ties should be based on clearly defined parameters. “We hope, we really want to have good relations with the US based on mutual respect and clearly defined parameters. I think that is doable. I think that it won’t take long,” Gilani said in an interview with The Associated Press.

The Prime Minister, however, added that new ties being negotiated with the US would ensure that the two countries “respected each other’s red lines” regarding sovereignty and rules of engagement along the border.

“We want to work with the United States. We really want to enhance our strategic partnership,” he said.

“But at the same time we want to revisit (our cooperation) with US, NATO and ISAF, and that is the reason, we have referred this matter to the Parliamentary Committee on National Security,” the Prime Minister said while referring to the November 26 NATO/ISAF attack on Pakistani border posts in Mohmand Agency, in which 24 Pakistan soldiers lost their lives.

Expressing Pakistan’s resolve for peace process in Afghanistan, Gilani said Pakistan will continue its role in this respect, adding that Pakistani people and security forces have rendered lot of sacrifices in the war against terrorism, which is also acknowledged by the whole world.

I think we have evolved some mechanisms, and we are ready to cooperate,” he said regarding peace efforts in Afghanistan.

We are committed (to reconciliation), despite that we are not attending (the Bonn meeting),” Gilani said.
Pakistan has suffered a lot because of the war against terrorism and extremism not only in the form of casualties of 30,000 innocent people but also of 5000 brave soldiers, law enforcement agencies personnel and also in the form of economy,” he said.

“How can anybody doubt our intention that after making so much sacrifices, we are not committed to reconciliation process in Afghanistan. We are committed,” the Prime Minister maintained.

About energy shortages in the country, the Prime Minister said Pakistan should also be provided with civil nuclear technology like India and there should not be any discrimination with Pakistan.

We are a country, where there is energy shortage, we have been talking with the US and there have been dozens of meetings... and they said the US would be assisting us in energy sector,” he said, adding, “we need a civil-nuclear energy deal with the US.”

The Prime Minister mentioned US-India civil nuclear deal, adding, Pakistan was not against the deal, “but at the same time we want that there should not be any discrimination.

Obama phones Zardari...condoles Pak soldiers death

US president Barrack Obama on Sunday telephoned President Asif Ali Zardari and offered condolences over the martyrdom of Pakistani soldiers in Nato air strike.

A White House statement said Obama placed a call early Sunday to Zardari expressing his regrets over the "tragic loss" and promising a "full investigation" into the incident, which has plunged the two uneasy allies into a diplomatic crisis.

Obama "made clear that this regrettable incident was not a deliberate attack on Pakistan and reiterated the United States' strong commitment to a full investigation," the statement said.

Islamabad has so far refused to take part in a US investigation into the November 26 air strikes on the Afghan border.

But the White House said Obama and Zardari nonetheless "reaffirmed their commitment to the US-Pakistan bilateral relationship, which is critical to the security of both nations, and they agreed to stay in close touch."

In the wake of the strikes, Pakistan decided not to take part in the Bonn Conference on the future of Afghanistan that opens Monday -- a decision which, together with the Taliban's boycott, has cast the event's usefulness into doubt.

Pakistan has also shut down NATO's vital supply line into Afghanistan and ordered American personnel to leave Shamsi air base.

The base is widely understood to have been a hub for the covert CIA drone war on Taliban and Al-Qaeda commanders in Pakistan's troubled border areas with Afghanistan.

McCain for linking Pak aid to cooperation

An influential Republican lawmaker said Sunday that the United States should link its military aid to Pakistan's cooperation on security, amid a crisis between the two countries over a NATO air strike that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers.

Senator John McCain, a leading Republican voice on security issues, charged that Pakistani intelligence continues to support a militant group that kills Americans, and he noted that Pakistani troops in the past have fired across the poorly marked Afghan border.

"This is a fog of war situation. Investigation is going on," McCain said on CNN's State of the Union program, referring to the November 26 air strikes on a Pakistani border post that plunged relations between the two erstwhile allies into crisis.

"But also the fact is that the ISI, the intelligence arm of the Pakistani army, is still supporting the Haqqani network which is killing Americans. That is unacceptable," he said.

He said materials in roadside bombs that have killed US forces in neighboring Afghanistan have been traced to two fertilizer factories in Pakistan.

Since the air strikes, a furious Pakistan has cut off the movement of supplies to US forces through Pakistan and ordered the closure of US drone operations at a Pakistani air base.

Asked how the United States should proceed, McCain said a complete break with Pakistan had been tried in the past for a ten year period and it did not work.

"But we have to address it in a realistic fashion and aid has to be gauged on the degree of cooperation that they are showing us in helping us prevent the needless deaths of young Americans," he said.

"So I would gauge our aid, particularly military aid -- and we've given many billions, as you know -- directly related to the degree of cooperation they show us, and we have to explore all alternatives

Imran Khan declares assets before media

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) chairman Imran Khan on Sunday declared his assets before the media and challenged all other politicians of the country to do the same, Geo News reported.

Addressing a press conference along with central leaders of PTI, Imran Khan announced to make Shah Mehmood Qureshi, who was also present there, the party's Vice Chairman.

Imran Khan said none of his assets in the name of his children and that all his property was in his own name.

He said all leaders of the political parties are hiding their assets. He asked them to declare their assets and warned to launch civil disobedience.

The TIP Chairman clarified that none of the board of directors of Shaukat Khanum Hospital received money and the person who accused them of the same was being served a legal notice.

He said he had sold his 10-London flat for 700,000 pounds and he also produced the sale deed for the same. He said, with that money, he bought land in 2002 and showed the registry to the journalists.

Imran Khan said he inherited the land in Mian Chunun from his grand father and that two plots he had owned were presented to him as reward for playing cricket by none other than the then prime minister Nawaz Sharif. "I donated both the plots for Shaukat Khanum Hospital."

To a question, Imran Khan said non-declaration of assets was a national issue and not a personal clash. He said Nawaz always played the politics on personal grounds.

He said he and board of directors of Shaukat Khanum never received salary from the hospital, adding that he had donated Rs.35 million to the hospital till the year 2000.

Replying to another question, PTI chairman said he would leave politics if the allegation of receiving money from ISI was proved.
Khan was of the view that Pakistan should pull out from the alliance waging the so-called war on terror.

US starts vacating Shamsi base

A US plane has landed at the Shamsi airbase to bring back American officials deployed there, Geo News reported.

Security has been heightened around the base.

Pakistan has ordered American personnel to leave the Shamsi air base, widely understood to have been a hub for a covert CIA drone after 24 Pakistani soldiers were killed in a Nato attack.

Pakistan stays out of US probe into Nato-raid

Pakistan is refusing to take part in a US military investigation of air strikes near the Afghan border that left 24 Pakistani soldiers dead, the Pentagon said Friday.

Pakistan was invited to cooperate in the probe into Saturday's incident, which has enraged Islamabad and plunged US-Pakistani relations into crisis, but officials have declined to do so.

"They have elected to date not to participate, but we would welcome their participation," said Pentagon press secretary George Little.

US officials expected a refusal given the fury in Pakistan following the incident, which led Islamabad to block NATO supply convoys on its border and boycott an international conference on Afghanistan in Bonn set for Monday.

The United States has voiced regret over the strikes but has stopped short of issuing an apology while the American military conducts the investigation.

"It's safe to say that the incident has had a chilling effect on our relationship with the Pakistani military, no question about that," spokesman Captain John Kirby told reporters.

"Both sides deem it to be as serious as it was."

US commanders and intelligence chiefs have long sought to cultivate relations with Pakistan's army, the country's most powerful institution, but the air strikes have caused outrage among the army's junior officers and fed popular resentment of Washington.

The Pakistani army called the strikes a "deliberate act of aggression" but US officials have declined to discuss publicly what transpired at two Pakistani border posts.

Kirby suggested the US military would review its operations and tactics for forces stationed in eastern Afghanistan in the aftermath of the deadly strikes.

"Clearly, an incident like this causes you -- and should cause you -- to take a step back and look at how you're doing things and whether there need to be improvements made or any kind of tactical decisions ...(to) do things a little differently," Kirby said.

"And General (John) Allen is doing that," he said, referring to the top US and NATO commander in Afghanistan.

Asked about reports that Pakistan's army has ordered troops to retaliate immediately if fired on, Kirby said that "every sovereign nation has the right of self-defense and the right to order their troops to defend themselves."

The Wall Street Journal, citing unnamed officials, reported Friday that Pakistan approved the air strikes that killed their troops, unaware that its forces were in the area.

We respect Pakistan’s sovereignty....US

US State Department has said that America respects Pakistan’s sovereignty evident form US Central Command’s (CENTCOM) quick steps to launch a probe into Mohmand tragedy for the very reason, Geo News reported.

Spokesman Mark Toner in State Department’s daily briefing said that US CENTCOM had tasked a team with an in-depth investigation into the Nato’s friendly fire, which martyred more than a dozen Pakistani troops deployed at an outstation next to Afghan border.

“US wants to make sure no such incident comes to pass in the future”, Toner said.

When asked why US was shy of offering an apology for this fatal tactical error, he said the truth was still out there, adding that was why Pakistan had been invited on board a US probe into the tragedy.

Commenting on Pakistan’s decision of a quick retaliation to such hostility in the days to come, he said the probe underway also aimed at ascertaining the implications of this strategy-shift by Pakistan. However, it was a Defence Department matter and only they could give a better answer to it, Toner added.

To another question, he said, in order to rule out any misunderstanding that could lead to any unforeseeable estrangement, we were in tight loop with our Pakistani counterparts since the Mohmand tragedy.