WASHINGTON: The United States on Tuesday quashed all speculations of a military takeover in Pakistan, saying that it would be terrible if it happened and Washington would oppose it strongly.
US special envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan Richard Holbrooke touched on a number of sensitive issues in his testimony before the House Foreign Affairs Committee.
He revealed that Pakistan had used F-16s for bombing extremist targets in Bajaur and Swat.
He opposed linking US aid to allowing access to Dr A.Q. Khan and indicated that the US might be working on a programme with Pakistan to block FM radio broadcasts by pro-Taliban clerics.
‘Our goal must be unambiguously to support and help stabilise a democratic Pakistan headed by its elected president, Asif Ali Zardari,’ Richard Holbrooke, the US special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, told Congress.
‘We have the highest strategic interests in supporting this government,’ he said.
Asked how Washington would react if the military toppled an elected government in Pakistan, Mr Holbrooke said: ‘We are strongly opposed to that … it will be terrible.’
Mr Holbrooke also used his testimony to convey a message of support for Pakistan, its government and the military.
‘Pakistan’s of such immense importance to the United States, strategically and politically,’ he said. ‘We do not think Pakistan is a failed state.’
The US envoy insisted it was important for the US lawmakers also to understand that while Pakistan was under ‘tremendous social, political and economic stress’, it was wrong to describe it as a failed state.
A.Q. KHAN ISSUE
Even on the issue of nuclear proliferation, which evokes an emotional outburst from ordinary US citizens as well, Mr Holbrooke refused to browbeat Pakistan.
When a lawmaker suggested that the US aid to Pakistan should be linked to allowing American lawmakers to question Dr Khan, Mr Holbrooke said it would be a mistake to do so.
He said that this issue should have been tackled by the Bush administration and that the Obama administration would do all it could to prevent Dr Khan and others from spreading nuclear technology.
‘I have raised this issue with the government of Pakistan and they told me that it happened during the previous government,’ he said.
Mr Holbrooke said that while he supported seeking further assurances from Pakistan on this issue, ‘linking it to US aid will not help’.
The US envoy rejected the suggestion that the Obama administration was seeking a deal with Mr Zardari’s political rival, Nawaz Sharif and that’s why it had established regular contacts with the PML-N leader.
‘It is not true,’ he said. ‘Why we have contacted him? We have similar relations with other politicians as well. We do have a relationship with the opposition leader in Britain too.’
FM TRANSMISSIONS
The US envoy said he did not understand why the United States did not have a plan to block FM radio transmissions by pro-Taliban clerics in Swat.
Mr Holbrooke noted that the clerics used mobile FM units, mounted on motorbikes, for transmitting their messages and it should not be difficult to block such transmissions.
Mr Holbrooke said he had met President Zardari on Monday night and ‘immediately raised’ the issue of recent advances made by the militants in Swat and other places.
Mr Zardari, he said, reminded him that he had opposed the Swat deal but was forced to acquiesce. The events that unfolded during the past few weeks proved him write, Mr Holbrooke added.
The US envoy said that Pakistan had used F-16 aircraft against the militants in Bajaur and Swat but only during the daylight.
The US, he said, was now doing midlife upgrading of these F-16s and after the upgrading they could be used more effectively against the extremists.
Mr Holbrooke said that the DG ISI, who accompanied the presidential delegation to Washington, would stay in the US capital after the delegation left.
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