Foreign Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif informed Senate on Wednesday that except pressing for going tough on the Haqqani network, the US had not made any "specific request" to Pakistan as claimed by US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson ahead of his recent visit.
Giving a policy statement in Senate with a view to clarifying the conditions set by US for Pakistan to carry forward the relations between the two countries, Asif said the US has given a list of 75 militants of whom some have died while a good number of them is taking refuge in Afghanistan.
"Tillerson didn't specifically mention Hafiz Saeed during his visit but he did press for going tough on the Haqqanis. His name is also not in the list of 75 people handed over by the US, and there is no mention of the place such Quetta, etc, where a militant might be taking shelter," he said.
He said that 45 percent area of Afghanistan is with Taliban and ISIS where they have shadow governors, which is enough for them to make terror planning, adding we plainly told Tillerson that Pakistan's influence on Taliban has diminished as they have got new handler from across the border.
The foreign minister said that Pakistan has made it crystal clear to US that any effort to give 'so-called stabilization role' to India is simply not acceptable, adding that we have categorically told the US that India is the reason behind instability in South Asia.
"We have made it clear to the US this is simply out of question, and we will not want any such role for India as it has already disturbed peace in the region," he maintained.
Asif said that US has been told that Pakistan is ready to play its due role for finding a political solution to Afghan crisis as military might is no solution to the problem, adding that Afghanistan's role as a facilitator for India is in no way acceptable.
Another thing on which the foreign minister took great pride in was the response of the government in the wake of US President Donald Trump's tough talk against Pakistan in August.
He said that unlike martial law regime of General Pervez Musharraf, both civilian and military leadership conveyed a unanimous message that there will be no compromise on national security.
"Unlike General Musharraf we did not collapse on one phone call and instead conveyed to the US that we will not fight its proxy war. We told them [Americans] we did not need any economic assistance, and any military equipments but relations based on mutual respect," he said.
He said the parliament of Pakistan, as well as the military leadership did not yield to unwarranted US pressure.
"After Trump's August 21 speech, we did not compromise on national security nor did we get any dictation from the US," he maintained.
Asif said that the US has also been told that Afghan ruling elite does not want to end the so-called war against terrorism as they have vested interest and they are making billions of dollars through drug trade, adding terrorism is talking place from across the border in connivance with India.
"The arrest of Kalbhushan Jadhav is one such example of what India has been doing against Pakistan by sitting on the Afghan soil," he added.
On its part, the minister said that Pakistan is ready to fence the border and had also asked the US to fence the border from Afghan side that will help in checking cross-border movement of militants.
"We also told the US to repatriate about two million Afghan refugees from Pakistan, for which it's not ready saying the security situation is not favourable. As long as refugees are here, you cannot control movement of people from Afghanistan," he said.
To a question by opposition leader in Senate Aitzaz Ahsan whether the US Secretary of State specifically mentioned any militant leader's name, he said he did not mention the name of Hafiz Saeed, the chief of Jama'at-ud-Da'wah, who is currently under house arrest,
The minister said the US is considering Taliban as a political entity, saying negotiations are going on with them. "And the only militant outfit which they [US] had been mentioning repeatedly is the Haqqani network, and other than that they have no other pressing demand," he added.
He said that normal security given to Tillerson during his visit to Pakistan reflects we have restored peace after rendering numerous sacrifices which the US should acknowledged.
"The way Tillerson had to meet Afghan President Asharaf Ghani at Baghram airbase shows the US and forces of 16 other countries failed to restore peace in Afghanistan during the last sixteen year...so our contribution to eradicate the menace of terrorism from our soil must not be downplayed," he added.
The minister said that the meeting with Tillerson took place in a very cordial atmosphere and that attitude of Pakistani leadership was not apologetic at all, as we spoke our heart out, adding we told the Americans to give us actionable intelligence and we will take prompt action like we did in recent recovery of a US-Canadian couple.
Without elaborating any further, he said there are other countries in the region who are also stakeholder in Afghanistan, and the US should ask them to play a role in resolving the Afghan issue.
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