The government will gradually send back the Americans from airbases in Jacobabad and Pasni after ordering the United States to vacate the Shamsi airbase in Balochistan, Information Minister Firdous Ashiq Awan said on Wednesday. Talking to reporters at the Press Information Department, she said the government would protect Pakistan’s interests at all costs and would not make a compromise on the country’s defence. Awan said the government considered Pakistan’s sovereignty of utmost importance. She said the United States was also investigating the NATO helicopter strikes on Pakistani border posts that killed 24 solders. She said Pakistan would finalise its strategy after the completion of US investigation.
About the progress on investigations into US attack in Abbottabad, she said the commission was still probing the incident and the government would act up its recommendations. Referring to former foreign minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi who recently joined the Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf, she said some “political dwarfs” were alleging that Pakistan’s nuclear assets were not safe under President Asif Ali Zardari. She said the accusation was an expression of distrust on the country’s security forces. She said the command and control authority of strategic assets had been shifted to the prime minister after the 18th amendment. She said the government had given an ultimatum to the United States to vacate the Shamsi airbase by December 11. She said the airbase was given on lease to the US in 1992, and the media should expose those who made the decision.
She said the government’s decision to boycott the second Bonn conference was according to the public sentiment. She termed the decision a turning point in the country’s foreign policy.
Jacobabad, Pasni airbases also to be vacated: Firdous
