Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: Participants at the Senate Panels on Defence and Foreign Affairs here on Monday said that the F-16 issue with the US was closed and Pakistan was seeking the aircraft from Jordan adding that discussions with France and Russia for alternatives were also going on.

They also clarified on the Angora Ada border crossing stating that it had not been handed over to Afghanistan.

Sartaj Aziz, Adviser to the Prime Minister on Foreign Affairs said that in a few days a lobbying firm would be hired for the image building of Pakistan in US- Pakistan foreign policy in the right direction.

It was not true that the policy was in the control of the military. The Secretary Defence said that the F-16 chapter was closed with the United States and Pakistan was looking for other options.

Sartaj Aziz and the Secretary Defence expressed these views at the meeting, which jointly met under the chairmanship of Mushahid Hussain Sayed and Nuzhat Sadiq at the Parliament House.

Aviver Aziz, Aizaz Chaudhry, Secretary Foreign Affairs and Lt Gen Alam Khattak, Secretary Defence briefed the panels on the withdrawal of subsidy on the sale of F-16 fighter jets to Pakistan by the United States. They also briefed on the situation arising after the drone strike on May 22, in Balochistan, resulting in the killing of Mullah Mansour and its aftermath and the impacts on Pakistan’s national security, defence and foreign affairs. Mushahid Hussain said that the policy of strategic depth was no more.

Aziz said that India was seven times larger than Pakistan. Despite that it still kept the Kashmir issue alive and did not comprise on it. “It is right that security issues dominate our foreign policy that’s why we are called a security state” he said.

He rejected the impression of isolation of Pakistan and said that Pakistan’s vision of a peaceful neighbourhood involved making sincere efforts to deepen its engagement with India, Afghanistan and Iran.

He also said that it was not true that after India’s support from the US for its membership to the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG), Pakistan started active diplomatic efforts to counter it. He said Pakistan wanted the international community’s fair treatment on it.

“Let us hope that in the NSG meeting on June 24 in Seoul, the Indian point of view will not be accepted”. While speaking on lobbying in the US Aziz said that with some days for image building the lobbying in the Congress firms would be finalised.

He said that in the recent interaction with the US “we raised the issue of increasing Indo-US cooperation on nuclear and conventional arms which was disturbing the balance of power in the region.

“We also told the US that Pakistan is taking action indiscriminately against all groups including the Haqqani network and they also should take action against the TTP and the border management. He said that Mullah Mansour got a Pakistani identity card in 2003 and a passport in 2006 and presently thousands of Afghans possessed Pakistani ID cards. He said that Pakistan’s foreign policy was in the right direction and it was not true that policy was in the control of the military, but involved the military, the parliament and the civil society.

Chaudhry said that India wanted terrorism to be included in the talks whereas Pakistan’s position was that Pakistan was the country most affected by terrorism.