Pakistan ‘needs US trust not funds’

Islamabad (Web Desk): Military spokesman Major General Asif Ghafoor has said that Pakistan does not need help from the US, except in the form of trust , stressing that the Afghan war has been imposed on Pakistan , and no country has done as much as Pakistan has done for the war-torn country.

Talking to a private TV channel, Maj Gen Ghafoor, the Director General of the Inter-Service Public Relations (ISPR), said that Pakistan and the US “have an amicable relationship”.

Elaborating, he said even though the Pakistan-US relationship had had its ups and downs, it remained positive on the whole. He added there was hardly an example of better cooperation in history than the one between Pakistan and the US.

The DG ISPR said that Pakistan’s nuclear assets were safe, and even the US had acknowledged that fact, while the country had a strong and stable mechanism.

“The defence cooperation between the two countries is also very comprehensive and Pakistan received a lot of support during the Soviet war in Afghanistan,” he said.

“They say the war on terrorism was possible without Pakistan’s help. Were operations against al-Qaeda possible without the help of Pakistan and the Pakistani forces?” Maj Gen Ghafoor said.

“We fully supported the US in the war on terror, although we had not started the war and it had been imposed on us,” he said. Pakistan was still supporting the US and also helping them secure the Afghan borders, he added.

The ISPR chief said “Afghan culture is different and their forces have their own capabilities”, adding that fighting in Afghanistan was not easy, and Pakistan had still been cooperating with the US. He called the war on terror a decisive war – one that had not seen the participation of many American allies.

“We have managed to secure the borders with Afghanistan and if their forces will cooperate, we will help abolish terrorism in the region for good,” he expressed determination.

“Although we have almost cleared our territory, it is the vacuum left behind by the lack of cooperation between Pakistan and Afghanistan forces,” he said.

Responding to a question, Maj Gen Ghafoor said that policy-making was for the government to do, and the Army was only there to provide technical assistance.

He said that during 2017, India had violated the peace agreement many times, targeting innocent civilians in Azad Kashmir “which has strengthened the struggle for freedom in occupied Kashmir”.