No one can dictate us, DG ISPR

The DG ISPR Major General Asif Ghafoor makes it clear that Pakistan will never compromise its dignity and self respect. He was talking to a private news channel.  He said Pakistan has taken action against the Haqqani network and the effects will be visible in due course of time.

"Effects of these operations cannot be visible immediately, "Only time will show how effective these operations were (in establishing peace within the region)." The DG ISPR added that the Pakistan Army carried out operations against the Haqqanis and in North Waziristan after the capacity of security forces was increased.

In response to a question regarding the US drone attacks in the settled areas of Pakistan, Asif Ghafoor said the country will respond to such acts according to the aspirations of its people.

Commenting on the recent developments in Pak-US relations, he said no amount of coercion can dictate Pakistan on how to continue. The spokesman for the military was responding to the US withholding $255 million in aid to Pakistan following Donald Trump’s tweet in which he said the US had foolishly given Pakistan more than $33 billion in aid over the last 15 years.

"No amount of coercion can dictate us how to continue," Asif Ghafoor said, adding, "We wish to move forward through cooperative engagement but we will not compromise on self-respect and dignity."

The army spokesman emphasised that the US had only reimbursed the expenditure which Pakistan had incurred while supporting the coalition forces in Afghanistan. "The Coalition Support Fund, as evident from its name, was received as a reimbursement for operations that were carried out to support the US," he said. He added that the two countries have a bilateral cooperation which includes bilateral finances and a coalition fund for the war in Afghanistan.

"We received an amount of between $15-20 billion in coalition funds for our military expenditure, while the national exchequer incurred $123 billion in losses," said Asif Ghafoor. He stressed that the sole objective of Pakistan's war is to establish regional peace.

Discussing India's new role in the region as part of the new US foreign policy for South Asia, the DG ISPR said that a single country cannot be assigned the role of guaranteeing peace in the region. “There are countries in the region that want to increase the differences between Pakistan and the US,” he said, in an apparent reference to India. “We are a nuclear power; we do not need security guarantees from anyone,” he said. He further stressed that peace with India is not possible till pending issues with the country’s eastern neighbour were resolved. "India has used the Afghan soil to support terrorism in Pakistan and Kulbhushan Jadhav is one such example."