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‘NATO distances itself from drone attacks in Pakistan’

* Committee says turn for UK, NATO to 'do more'
* Memon says India involved in fuelling insurgency in Balochistan

By Muhammad Bilal

ISLAMABAD: The North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) has categorically distanced itself from the frequent drone attacks in Pakistan, Senate Standing Committee on Defence Chairman Nisar Memon said on Monday.

"We expressed our concern over the drone attacks but the NATO and British authorities have distanced [themselves] from the attacks inside Pakistan and asked us to raise the issue with the United States administration," Memon told a news conference after returning from a visit to the United Kingdom and the NATO headquarters along with the committee members.

Memon said the committee had conveyed Pakistan’s concerns over the drone attacks inside the Tribal Areas to UK and NATO officials.

"We emphasised that this action is earning a bad name for the United States and its allies including the United Kingdom and ISAF," he said, adding that the officials unequivocally said that they respected Pakistan’s sovereignty and had no mandate to cross the border into Pakistan.

Memon said the committee would meet US authorities as well to discuss the issue of the drone attacks inside the Tribal Areas.

He said the House of Commons Defence Committee was informed that the Pakistani parliament had passed a unanimous resolution during the in-camera session last month that condemned the intervention in Pakistan’s territorial sovereignty and had asked all stakeholders to provide a solution to the problem through dialogue.

Turn: He said Pakistani senators made it clear to both the UK and NATO officials that it was their turn to 'do more'.

About the committee’s meeting with the NATO officials in Brussels, Memon said they demanded an exit strategy for NATO forces stationed in Afghanistan.

However, they were told that NATO and ISAF forces would continue to stay in Afghanistan until the Afghan Army and police were trained, adding that the Afghan government required them to stay for security reasons.

Indian forces: The senators also questioned the presence of the Indian consulates and a large number of Indian troops in Afghanistan and said that India was involved in fuelling the insurgency in Balochistan. Memon said the UK agreed with Pakistan's stance of resolving the issues through dialogue instead of military force.

He said the UK was pleased that supply routes to ISAF in Afghanistan had reopened, as it was important for the working of NATO forces in that area.

The committee also raised the issue of the increase in poppy cultivation in Afghanistan and that the NATO forces had not kept a check on the illegal production, which was now funding terrorist activities in the region.

Senator Dilawar Abbas said that the committee members urged UK and NATO officials to make efforts to enhance the Afghan government’s administrative and managerial capacity, as a stable Afghanistan was in the best interests of Pakistan.

The delegation was also invited to Kashmir Centres in London and Brussels where they met and supported Kashmir's right to self-determination and rejected the ongoing elections in Indian-held Kashmir.

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