Leaders of various political parties have strongly condemned the reported refusal of the US to vacate the Shamsi Airbase and asked the government to reveal the agreement, if any, with the US that allowed the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to operate from the airbase.
The US reportedly refused to meet the demands of Pakistan to vacate the airbase being used by CIA to carry out drone attacks in the tribal areas of Pakistan. Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Spokesman Siddiqul Farooq said the federal government must reveal any agreements, signed by former president Pervez Musharraf’s government and later endorsed by President Asif Ali Zardari’s government, which authorised US forces to operate from inside Pakistan and provided CIA officials a pretext not to vacate the airbase.
He also added that the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) government must take measures to meet the demands parliament had made in its unanimous resolution. Jamaat-e-Islami Senator Professor Khurshid Ahmed said that the reported US refusal to vacate the airbase and continued drone attacks were a violation of Pakistan’s sovereignty and international law.
He also said the Pakistan government should immediately take steps to stop NATO supplies from going through Pakistan and force the US authorities to end their overt and covert operations on Pakistani soil. “The US refusal is a slap in the face of Pakistan and is simply intolerable. The government should immediately demand withdrawal of the US forces from Shamsi Airbase and take immediate steps to stop NATO supplies through Pakistan,” Khurshid said.
Referring to the parliamentary resolution in this regard, Khurshid said: “The parliament has already issued directives and it is time for the government and the army to implement the decision of the parliament.” He also demanded that the Senate and National Assembly Standing Committees on Defence must meet immediately to assess the situation and ask the government to take immediate and appropriate action.
Senator Hasil Bizenjo said that he was unable to understand why the government was fond of ridiculing itself. “The government knows it cannot force the US to vacate the Shamsi Airbase and if a minister makes such a statement knowing this fact, it is certainly tantamount on the part of the minister to ridiculing himself or the government,” Bizenjo said.
Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl Senator Ismail Bulaidi said a government that had mortgaged the country for dollars could not force the US to vacate the airbase. “Unless Pakistan’s foreign policy is reviewed and formulated as an independent country, and the government stops begging, US intervention cannot be stopped,” Bulaidi said, adding that the government must make the US realise that Pakistan was an independent and sovereign country.
