Pakistan is concerned about "influence of India in Afghanistan" and does not want to be caught in a "pincer movement" on the issue, the country's envoy to the US, Husain Haqqani, has said.
US Defense Secretary Robert Gates has refuted the whining of Pakistan's Ambassador to the US, Husain Haqqani who had contended in a recent article in the Wall Street Journal that the main reason Pakistan's counter-insurgency efforts this far against the Taliban and other extremist groups was because it had not been provided with proper equipment --attack helicopters and night visions goggles -- by the United States as promised.
Pakistan's ambassador to the United States Husain Haqqani has said that Islamabad is worried by the strengthening Indo-US ties.Describing Indo-US ties as 'robust' and 'multifaceted', Haqqani pointed out that strong ties between India and the US is one of the biggest causes of worries for Islamabad. Pakistan is wary of the Indo-US relationship, which is robust and multifaceted, and the US would have to treat Pakistan at par to win over Pakistani trust.
It was both a defiant and defensive Husain Haqqani, Pakistan's Ambassador to the US, who in appearing on the Sunday news talk shows on television, and asked to explain India's accusing finger at Pakistan for the deadly terrorist attacks in Mumbai, began pointing to the 9/11 terrorist coming from countries that couldn't be held responsible for the attacks and also terrorist training camps in the United States itself.
'Pakistan's leaders have made a serious mistake in describing India as an existential threat and a permanent enemy. If there are no permanent friends or permanent enemies in international relations, then neither Afghanistan nor India should be Pakistan's permanent enemies either,' Husain Haqqani, former Pakistani ambassador envoy to the United States, tells Rediff.com's Aziz Haniffa in a fascinating interview.
"We have to largely depend upon the US for our defence related matters. India is our main concern, as it is buying weapons worth $100 billion from five countries, including China, and to balance it our relations with the US are very significant," The Dawn quoted Haqqani as saying.
International diplomats condemned the assassination of Salmaan Taseer, governor of Pakistan's powerful Punjab province and a key aide of President Asif Ali Zardari.
Hours after controversial Pakistani-American businessman Mansoor Ijaz failed to turn up before a judicial commission probing the memo scandal, a Pakistani parliamentary committee on Monday summoned him to appear before it on January 26.
A Pakistani parliamentarian has demanded that Inter-Services Intelligence chief Lt Gen Ahmed Shuja Pasha should resign following the claims that he travelled to Arab countries to discuss a move to oust President Asif Ali Zardari.
Ordering a "time-bound" probe into the 'memogate' scandal, Pakistan Supreme Court on Thursday sought responses within 15 days from President Asif Ali Zardari, army and Inter-Services Intelligence chiefs besides others in connection with petitions before it seeking an investigation in to the controversy.
Pakistan on Wednesday named former federal minister Sherry Rehman, a close aide of slain ex-premier Benazir Bhutto, as its new envoy to the United States following the resignation of Ambassador Husain Haqqani over the 'Memogate' controversy.
The US intelligence community has begun to look for linguists and analysts from the Pakistani-American community to meet its national security challenges, especially after Pakistani Americans were in Pakistan trying to join Al Qaeda.Pakistan is often viewed as the epicentre of international terrorism.
Even as there is a sense of positivity over Indo-Pak ties after the outcome of Pakistan polls, a former Pakistani diplomat believes a regime change is unlikely to bring any substantial shift in Islamabad's approach.
Elusive Taliban leader Mullah Omar, one of the world's most wanted terrorists, was treated in a Karachi hospital with the help of Pakistan's spy agency Inter Services Intelligence after he suffered a heart attack, a private intelligence agency has claimed.
A nine-judge bench headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry also lifted a foreign travel ban on Pakistan's former ambassador to the US, Husain Haqqani, who had resigned after the scandal became public.
Pakistan on Monday said it will approach Interpol for further probe into the affairs of 'memogate' key figure Pakistani-American businessman Mansoor Ijaz, and asked the United States to take action against him for violating American laws and making false statements about its raid that killed Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.
Pakistan's Ambassador to the United States Husain Haqqani has called the leak of classified United States military documents on the Afghan war as 'irresponsible', and insisted that his nation was fully committed to fighting terror groups.Whistle-blower organisation WikiLeaks has released over 90,000 documents called the 'Afghan War Diaries, 2004-2010', which prove fears that Pakistan is aiding the Taliban to organise networks of militant groups that fight against America.
Pakistan's new envoy to the United States, Sherry Rehman, is set to reach Washington on January 9 to occupy the position that was vacated by Husain Haqqani after he was linked to the Memogate scandal.
It was imperative if the war against extremism and terrorism that threatens to tear apart both countries and could have dire consequences to the region is to be combated, Afghanistan's Ambassador to the United States Said Jawad said, adding that while Afghanistan does not question Pak civilian government's commitment to combat terrorism, the military still seemed to be obsessed with India instead of the existential threat that threatens the very fabric of Pak and Afghanistan.
Pakistan's envoy to the United States Husain Haqqani argued: "First of all, let us understand one thing -- a Pakistani court had ordered the release of Dr Khan. That does not mean that Dr Khan goes from house arrest and takes over the Pakistani nuclear programme again."
Jones and Panetta bear the same message that US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton sounded a few days ago. Clinton had said that Pakistan would have to face very serious consequences if an attack on the US, which was planned in Pakistan, had succeeded. To avoid coming down heavily on Pakistan, the US has offered to cooperate with them to eliminate such threats.
Pakistan's Ambassador to the United States, Husain Haqqani, went ballistic at a forum in Washington DC, slamming Congressional critics, the media and leading analysts who have predicted that Pakistan is on the verge of becoming a failed state and bound to implode, and those who have accused the ISI of colluding with al Qaeda and the Taliban while Islamabad rakes in the massive largesse of American economic and security assistance.
The American government is providing the used aircraft free of cost to Pakistan, which will only have to bear the shipment costs. The delivery of the aircraft was authorised by the US administration on Wednesday.
The Devyani Khobragade row, India-Pakistan bickering over Afghanistan and a nightclub act by two diplomats were some of the issues discussed at one of the sessions at Jaipur Lit Fest, reports Sanchari Bhattacharya.
Amid growing global concern over safety of Pakistan's nuclear arsenals, India today said battlefield atomic weapons of that country were at the heart of such apprehensions.
Former Foreign Secretary Riaz Khokhar is tipped to replace Sherry Rehman as Pakistan's ambassador to the United States, according to a media report on Wednesday.
'The real purpose of President Obama writing to President Zardari,' Husain Haqqani tells Rediff.com's Aziz Haniffa, 'was to seek a turnaround on terrorism -- that Pakistan, whatever its grievances, cannot have jihadi groups operating openly on its soil.'
Pakistan's close ties with China and its lack of democracy and disregard for human rights will not be overlooked, said Haqqani, who currently is a Senior Fellow at the Hudson Institute think-tank in Washington.
'The world's patience on terrorist safe havens is running thin and that is not good for Pakistan'
Providing military assistance in the hope that it will change Pakistan's worldview is wrong, says erstwhile ambassador to the United States Husain Haqqani
'In South Asia, unlike Southeast, East, or Central Asia, there is a natural hegemon: India. China cannot cast it aside easily'
India'Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been congratulated for his speedy diplomacy and his talks with Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif. However, academic Christine Fair and former Pakistan ambassador to US Husain Haqqani dismiss the meeting, calling it merely a photo-op and an exercise in futility. Aziz Haniffa reports.
'The narrative of patriotism has been framed around the army and competing worldviews about Pakistan and those who do not fit the army's parameters are ostracised as rebellious, treasonous, and even blasphemous'
United States President Donald Trump remarks on Monday that Prime Minister Narendra Modi sought his mediation on the Kashmir issue will "damage" the Indo-US relations, ex-diplomats said.
United States President Barack Obama secretly offered Pakistan in 2009 that he would nudge India towards negotiations on Kashmir in lieu of it ending support to terrorist groups like Lashkar-e-Tayiba and Taliban, but much to his disappointment Islamabad rejected the offer.
'After a ten year search, the so-called 'mastermind' of the Mumbai Terror attacks has been arrested in Pakistan. Great pressure has been exerted over the last two years to find him!' said Trump who is scheduled to meet Khan at his Oval Office on Monday, July 22.
A former top envoy of the country questioned Pakistan's decades-old Kashmir policy.
When then ISI director Lieutenant General Ahmad Shuja Pasha visited Washington, DC for a meeting with CIA Director Michael Hayden, he admitted that the planners of the Mumbai attacks included some 'retired Pakistani officers' and that the attackers had 'ISI links, but this had not been an authorised ISI operation.'
The community is planning to welcome Modi at every possible location where he could be available during his three-day stay.
"We have removed the leader of an organisation that has continued to plot against and unleash attacks on American and coalition forces, to wage war against the Afghan people, and align itself with extremist groups like Al-Qaeda," the US president said in a statement.
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