Pakistan's Gen. Ashfaq Kayani should command joint Pak-US-NATO force: Haroon

Pakistan's Gen. Ashfaq Kayani should command joint Pak-US-NATO force: Haroon (NSI News Source Info) By Khalid Hasan, WASHINGTON - November 23, 2008: Pakistan’s UN ambassador Abdullah Hussain Haroon has proposed that a joint Pakistani, NATO and US military force under the command of Gen Ashfaq Kayani should be set up to increase co-ordination and “curb terrorists across the Pak-Afghan border”. Haroon said in a speech at the US Army War College last week that he was making the proposal to “end complaints of mistrust among coalition partners and provide much needed local experience, essential for success in Afghanistan”. He also said that there was a better understanding between the leadership of Afghanistan and Pakistan today than in the past, and called on the incoming Obama administration to increase economic assistance to Afghanistan and Pakistan so that economic activity can be generated and the basic needs of the people are addressed, adding that this “will not cost much”. The United States as a matter of policy does not permit US military personnel to serve under any non-US command. Ambassador Haroon also dated 1978 as the year of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, whereas it took place in 1979. He said the “amalgam of diverse interests under the nomenclature of Taliban has taken upon us, it is now Pakistan ’s war. If the Taliban are not defeated history is a witness that whenever Khyber has been breached, the battle has been fought in Panipat.” He said the void left by the United States after the Soviets were defeated was filled by the Taliban, who challenged the status quo and “provided the people of Afghanistan religious education and their brand of justice”. Underscoring the history of US-Pakistan relations, he said since Prime Minister Liaquat Ali Khan visited the US in 1950, Pakistan has maintained close relations with the United States and has been a member of CENTO, SEATO and Baghdad Pacts. The ambassador listed the number of defence pacts at three, whereas CENTO and Baghdad Pact refer to the same treaty. Haroon caused a bit of a surprise when he told his audience that Pakistan has spent $150 billion on the upkeep of Afghan refuges since their arrival in Pakistan more than 30 years ago. His precise words were, “Pakistan had to bear an expenditure of roughly 150 billion dollars for hosting three million Afghan refugees, 10 percent of the total population of Afghanistan for the past 33 years, equal to one year of Pakistan’s GDP and one percent of the savings where total savings rate is two percent”. Fleshing out his claim, he said that if the cost on food per person is taken as a dollar a day, it comes to $35 billion so far, and as food is 50 percent of living expenses, if another 50 percent is added for education, health and other things, the total goes over $72 billion spent over this period of time. He added, “And if you take the capital expenditure of housing and many other such things, you can practically double it again - over 150 billion over many years. If the ancillary costs of United States were three trillion on the war on Iraq where it spent 600 billion dollars, the ancillary costs incurred by Pakistan can be well imagined.” According to the Pakistan Mission, the ambassador’s speech received much applause.