Pakistan formally asked the United Arab Emirates (UAE) on Monday to get the Shamsi airbase vacated from the US military and return it to Pakistan’s armed forces, Pakistan Today has learnt.
A well-placed source, who asked not to be named, said that President Asif Ali Zardari formally conveyed the message during his one-on-one meeting with UAE Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah Bin Zayed Al-Nahayan here at the Presidency. “Yes, the president has conveyed to the visiting UAE foreign minister the government’s decision on the Shamsi airbase and asked the UAE to get the base vacated and hand it over to Pakistan,” said the source.
DELAY IN HANDOVER:He said the UAE foreign minister requested that the handover of the base to Pakistan be delayed until the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF)’s investigations into the attack on the Salala checkpost were completed. However, the president turned down the request, said the source. “The president told Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed that the decision by the DCC (Defence Committee of the Cabinet) was final and it would not be reviewed,” he said.
Following the one-on-one meeting, Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar, Interior Minister Rehman Malik and other senior officials also joined the president, said the source. When contacted, Presidential Spokesman Farhatullah Babar neither confirmed nor denied the information, saying he could only comment on the contents of the press release.
The decision by the DCC to ask the US to vacate the Shamsi airbase within 15 days has exposed the government’s previous claims about the airbase’s possession, which, according to reports, had been used as a launch-pad for drone attacks in the tribal areas. The decision is tantamount to an official admission that the airbase remains in American hands. Since the Shamsi airbase came to the fore in year 2009, the government officials have been making contradictory statements on the status of the base. Soon after the Abbottabad raid by US special forces on May 2, Air Force Chief Rao Qamar Suleman had told a joint sitting of parliament that the Shamsi airbase was given to the UAE in 1992 on lease, who had later handed it over to the US.
On the contrary, Defence Minister Ahmed Mukhtar had told the National Assembly in 2009 that the US was using the Shamsi airbase (for logistical support), but the government was not satisfied with payments for its use.
Shamsi airbase, also called Bandari, is a PAF’s airbase located near Washki (about 200 miles southwest of Quetta) in the Balochistan province. The United States has been using Shamsi airbase to station unmanned Predator drones that have been used to attack targets inside the country’s tribal areas, an unnamed senior US official had told Fox News recently. Shamsi was used heavily for launching the war in Afghanistan in late 2001, and later served as the base for the US drone programme. Set in sparsely populated desert in the western Baluchistan province, Shamsi is highly controversial within Pakistan for its association with drones, which Islamabad officially condemns. The DCC also announced that the government would “revisit and undertake a complete review of all programmes, activities and cooperative arrangements” with the US and US-led forces in Afghanistan, “including diplomatic, political, military and intelligence”. In 2009, media reports alleged that the airfield was used by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) as a base for predator drone attacks on militants in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas.
The airfield was constructed at an unknown date and used for years by Arab sheiks from Saudi Arabia, UAE and other Arab countries for falconry trips. During the war in Afghanistan, US special forces used the airfield as a base between 2001 and 2006. On January 9, 2002, a United States Marine Corps KC-130 aircraft crashed on approach to Shamsi. All seven crew members were killed in the crash. In February 2009, A London-based newspaper had announced that it had obtained Google Earth images from 2006 which showed predator aircraft parked outside a hangar at the end of the runway. The investigation was in response to a statement by US Senator Dianne Feinstein that the CIA was basing its drone aircraft in Pakistan. The US company Blackwater was also reported to have a presence there, hired by the CIA to arm the drones with missiles. In June 2011, Pakistan publicly ordered the US to remove all of its personnel from the airfield. The US and Pakistan announced a few days later that drone operations from the airfield had actually ceased in April 2011.
Zardari turns down UAE’s request on Shamsi airbase
