Pakistan will not launch an offensive against Haqqani extremists despite Washington ramping up the pressure after a series of attacks on US targets in Afghanistan, an official said Monday.
Pakistan’s army chief of staff gathered together his top generals in an extraordinary meeting at the weekend after a series of stinging rebukes from the Americans blaming the Haqqanis and Pakistani intelligence over attacks.
General James Mattis, commander of the US Central Command, which oversees the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, became the most senior US commander to hold talks with Pakistani generals in Islamabad since the pressure mounted.
“I don’t think the indicators are as such,” a senior Pakistani security official told AFP when asked if the army was going to launch an operation in North Waziristan, where the Haqqani leadership is based near the Afghan border.
Instead, he said, the military needs to “consolidate gains” made against local militants who pose a security threat elsewhere in Pakistan’s lawless tribal belt that Washington has branded an Al-Qaeda headquarters.
a good move by COAS of Pakistan
Short term it is a zero sum game for Pakistan. Long term it's a loss-loss situation.
All told, it's USD 20 billion international aid package. Cut 50% of it and everything stops in Pakistan.
It's not that Pakistan can't do without foreign aid. It very certainly can, only if, and only if the ruling elites (both civilian and military) are atleast 10% honest and a patriot. Just brave words, file photos and militancy does not help.
The USA should cut its losses and stop paying Pakistan billions of dollars for the priviledge of shooting its more extremist citizens. Let Pakistan deal with their own problems without our help. Let India and Pakistan make peace, or annihilate themselves with nuclear weapons. It's not our mess to clean up.
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