Foreign Minister (FM) Khurshid Mahmud Kasuri on Wednesday defended latest air strikes in the troubled tribal region, rejecting the impression that military operation to eliminate al Qaeda was being carried out on the pressure of the United States. "What we are doing is for the country. No body is pressurising us," he told journalists here after addressing a conference.
Close to 200 civilians have so far been killed in five days of fresh fighting erupted from Saturday between Pakistani security forces and tribal militants allegedly having links with al Qaeda.
Fighter jets bombed a village market near Mirali town in North Waziristan tribal agency on Tuesday. The newest offensive was launched in the midst of repeated accusations from Washington that Pakistan tribal belt had become a safe heaven for Taliban to regroup for carrying out strikes into neighbouring Afghanistan.
But Kasuri said fighting militancy was in favour of Pakistan and the country had been benefited from the war on terror during past fiver years. The minister claimed Pakistan's foreign policy was free of any external pressures and cited examples of defying US demands on Iran's nuclear programme and joining coalition forces in Iraq.
Khurshid said the foreign policy the present government had been pursuing was in the best interest of the country and he saw no reason for the coming administration changing it. On a question of President Pervez Musharraf receiving felicitation message from Israel on his weekend disputed re-election, he said: "It was just a formality."
Earlier, addressing the conference, Kasuri underlined the need of establishing a joint authority of Economic Co-operation Organisation (ECO) member countries to cope with natural calamities like floods and earthquakes. The conference was jointly organised by the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) and ECO secretariat to look into how member states can help each other fight natural calamities.
NDMA chairman Lieutenant General Farooq Ahmed Khan told media the conference had proposed to launch an integrated early warning system in ECO member countries to minimise losses from floods and earthquakes. The conference had also suggested framing regional action plans to fight floods, earthquakes and droughts in the member countries.