Tuesday, Mar 25, 2003
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By B. Muralidhar Reddy
The Pakistan Foreign Office spokesman, Aziz Ahmed Khan made this clarification in response to a question on the world-wide request by the United States for expulsion of Iraqi diplomats. The 40-minute-long weekly press briefing turned out to be a battle of wits between Mr. Khan and journalists with the latter insisting on knowing as to why Pakistan was shy of condemning the American war on Iraq. The stock reply of the spokesman was ``we have deplored the initiation of military action''. At least one journalist went to extent of asking if Pakistan would do the same if it came under such an attack. Expulsion of Iraqi diplomats was not only the subject on which Mr. Khan had to clarify matters. He was asked if the U.S. was using any Pakistani military bases for the Iraq war. Mr. Khan said that it had not provided any facility to the U.S.-led forces for military action in Iraq. To a volley of questions on provision of facilities to the U.S.-led coalition forces, he said Pakistan had provided its air bases for use of rescue operations only vis-a-vis military action in Afghanistan in the war against terrorism. On withdrawal of these facilities, the spokesman stated that no decision has so far been taken. He reiterated Pakistan's call for an early end to the hostilities in Iraq to avoid any human disaster. ``We think that peace still has a chance,'' he said and added, ``the military action should be stopped as quickly as possible''. Replying to a question, the spokesman said Pakistan does not support unilateralism and is for the supremacy of the UN Charter to resolve international disputes. To another question on whether Islamabad supported regime change, he said Pakistan felt that the Iraqi regime should be changed by the Iraqi people themselves. Asked to elaborate on the reasons that prompted Prime Minister Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali to put off his visit to the U.S., Mr. Khan said it was ``in deference to the sentiments of the people over the military action in Iraq''. At the same time, he said U.S. `understood' the position of Pakistan. When a correspondent wanted to know if the Government was worried about the `anti-American sentiments' Mr. Khan said these `anti-war sentiments' were not confined to Pakistan and were being expressed worldwide. The spokesman said Pakistan had long-standing relations with the United States and the anti-war feelings being expressed by the people would not affect Pakistan-U.S. ties. About the Prime Minister's visit to China (which commenced today), the spokesman said Pakistan has been consulting Beijing on important issues and it was the first visit of any head of the Government after a new leadership in China. Asked if Pakistan was contemplating any initiative to halt the war, Mr. Khan said the U.N. Security Council was fully seized of the situation in Iraq and Pakistan was actively playing its role. However he declined to elaborate on the role when a journalist persisted with the question.
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