**ISLAMABAD: Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari Saturday reiterated demand for ending US drone attacks on militants in its tribal areas and called for removing a “trust deficit” with the United States.
**
Zardari’s remarks came after talks with US special envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan Marc Grossman, who arrived in the Pakistani capital on Friday for meetings with top officials.
“They discussed bilateral relations, the fight against militancy, the regional situation, drug trafficking and drone attacks,” presidential spokesman Senator Farhatullah Babar told reporters.
Zardari “reiterated his call for an end to the drone attacks, terming them counterproductive in the fight against militancy and in the battle of winning hearts”, Babar said.
“We need to discuss alternatives on the question of drone attacks,” Babar quoted Zardari as saying.
Zardari said “the goal of establishing a long-term, sustained and durable Pakistan-US equation would remain elusive until the issue of trust deficit was addressed in an effective manner”.
Attacks by unmanned US aircraft are deeply unpopular in Pakistan, which says they violate its sovereignty and fan anti-US sentiment, but American officials are said to believe they are too important to give up.
What has prompted the president to ask for ending the drone strikes now, as we have already seen record strikes during the past four and a half years. Oh wait the elections are near.
He shouldnt have done that.
he knows very well that it aint gonna happe, now it will only show the world that pak president is powerless. kinda defames the post of president. he should have let rehman baba or ashrafi do it for him.
He shouldnt have done that.
he knows very well that it aint gonna happe, now it will only show the world that pak president is powerless. kinda defames the post of president. he should have let rehman baba or ashrafi do it for him.
Not only president, PM, judges, generals, sportsmen, businessmen, clerics, politicians, public and even the UN, everyone is powerless. I do not see drones stopping in the foreseeable future. Zardari has just done his part of lip service .
Election time... as in another thread Zardari winked the party to mark the beginning of election campaign, this statement is to gain favorable view from the people.
Sometimes I wonder why you guys ignore the facts. These drone attacks were allowed during 2002 by then stupid army general, even he allowed Shamsi Air Base near Quetta to use for the same purpose. Zardari then did not exist. Whey army guys make pact with Sam, they are the only ones responsible for these attacks and they are the ones responsible for asking Sam to stop them. Zardari kis khait ki mooli hay?
**The British newspaper The Times stated on 18 February 2009 that the CIA was using Shamsi Airfield, 190 miles (310 km) southwest of Quetta and 30 miles (48 km) from the Afghan border, as its base for drone operations. Safar Khan, a journalist based in the area near Shamsi, told the Times, “We can see the planes flying from the base. The area around the base is a high-security zone and no one is allowed there.”[68] [68] Top US officials confirmed to Fox News Channel that Shamsi Airfield had been used by the CIA to launch the drones since 2002.
**
In order to justify your esteemed president you ignored one fact that if zardari is not any khait’s mooli, than why is he raising this issue now, is that he suddenly woke up after 4 years or is it because elctions are around the corner.
