The US embassy in Islamabad rejects the assertions made today by a Pakistani newspaper in an article entitled the "US embassy $1bn multipurpose command complex near completion." The story is completely untrue and is replete with errors. There is no large-scale construction project going on at the US embassy, as alleged in the article and there is certainly no command complex under construction.
There are plans to replace many of the ageing buildings on the embassy compound but construction has not yet begun and is not anticipated to begin until next year. There are no plans to add hundreds of marines to provide security for the embassy. We have said several times publicly and on the record that after the US Embassy renovation project is completed we may add approximately a dozen additional Marine Security guards.
The article also alleges that an additional 1000 personnel from Washington will be assigned to the embassy. Again, as we have said publicly and on the record, after the completion of the embassy renovation project we may increase the number of American employees by 300-400.
No final decision has been made on this but the total number of Americans in Pakistan after the increase will certainly be far less than 1000 American employees. The embassy further refutes the assertion that the United States has pressured the Pakistan Government to allow a private US security company to import hundreds of armoured personnel carriers.
Neither the United States government nor any private security company working for the United States government has sought to import any armoured personnel carriers into Pakistan. The allegation that the US Embassy put pressure on the local or federal government officials to stop the construction of a hotel near the Embassy is also false.
We were not aware of any plans to build a hotel on Constitution Avenue, as alleged in the article, which would make it difficult for us to oppose such a project. Finally, we were surprised to see the publication of a photo associated with the article that was captioned, "A view of under construction block of American embassy at Diplomatic Enclave."
In fact, the photo is of another country's embassy that is under construction approximately 1 kilometer from the US embassy compound. The United States Embassy was not contacted by the publication that published this article. Our Spokesperson is available to respond to all questions concerning the US Embassy at anytime.-PR
Comments
Comments are closed.