Islamabad: In a bold decision, Pakistan has decided and announced that it will not provide any bases on its soil to the US to operate from, after its troops exit Afghanistan.
The decision came after the briefing of the National Security Committee, which was attended by senior members of the Parliament from both the government and opposition, along with the Chief of Army Staff (COAS), and the Directors General of Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), and the Military Intelligence (MI).
The meeting continued for at least eight hours, where the committee members were given a detailed briefing on the security situation of the country and the region at large, the situation with India and the Kashmir issue, and Pakistan’s role in the Afghan peace process, especially on the US demand to Pakistan for providing bases to operate after its withdrawal from Afghanistan.
During the all-important meeting, the members were informed that US seemed to be deliberately leaving a “mismanaged and unstable” Afghanistan as it wanted to undermine China, Pakistan and the region.
However, Pakistan has decided that it is ready to face any consequences of its decision to not provide any bases to the US.
“Pakistan is not going to give military bases to the US; we are not going to fight their proxy war. Nearly 70,000 people were martyred since the US did it the first time,” said a member of the parliament, who was present during the briefing.
“The US is once again leaving behind an unfinished job,” he added.
The parliamentarians were also informed that the reason why US has taken a quick decision to withdraw its troops from Afghanistan is because “it doesn’t want to see peace in the region”, said a parliamentarian.
Army chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa and DG ISI, Lt Gen Faiz Hameed gave detailed presentations to the parliamentarians on what they called “Pakistan-sponsored and coordinated efforts for the Afghan peace process”.
A senior lawmaker stated that Pakistan has tried its best to make the Taliban and Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani come to the table for talks. However, he added that since the US has announced its withdrawal date, the Taliban are not ready to sit down for talks.
“The US dream of introducing a democratic system could not be achieved as it is not acceptable to the Taliban, who wish to run the system based on Shariah,” he added.