Pakistan's army chief says the United States should focus on stabilizing Afghanistan instead of pressuring Pakistan to confront militants in its northwest tribal region.
General Ashfaq Kayani made the comments late Tuesday in Rawalpindi, during a closed-door briefing to parliamentary defense committees on ongoing military operations.
Lawmakers who attended the briefing said Kayani told them that the “problem lies in Afghanistan and not Pakistan.”
The U.S. has been pressing Pakistan to launch a military offensive against militants in the North Waziristan tribal region, the reported base of the militant Haqqani network. The al-Qaida-linked group has launched attacks against U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan.
Pakistani lawmakers said Wednesday that Kayani told them the army could launch an operation in North Waziristan “tomorrow,” if he were convinced it would solve all problems. He added that any such offensive would be Pakistan's decision.
Senator Javed Ashraf Qazi told VOA that Kayani was asked about the possibility of U.S. military action against militants on Pakistani soil. Kayani responded by saying that the United States should think “10 times” before considering taking any unilateral action in Pakistan.
Qazi said Kayani noted that Pakistan was a nuclear power and must not be compared with Iraq and Afghanistan.
U.S. special forces killed al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden in a May 2 raid in the Pakistani city of Abbottabad. Pakistan was not informed of the military operation in advance and condemned the raid as a violation of its sovereignty.
Relations between Pakistan and the United States have been strained since bin Laden's killing.
Senator Qazi told VOA on Wednesday that General Kayani also rejected U.S. allegations that Pakistan's military spy agency, the ISI, provides support to the Haqqani network.
Kayani told lawmakers that any contacts between the ISI and militants were used to gather information, noting that the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency and Britain's MI6 also have such contacts.
Last month, then-U.S. military chief Admiral Mike Mullen accused the ISI of helping the Haqqani network launch attacks in Afghanistan, including an assault on the U.S. Embassy in Kabul. Pakistan denied the allegations.
Separately on Wednesday, Pakistani Interior Minister Rehman Malik traveled to the southwestern town of Chaman along the Afghan border to announce the reactivation of a biometric system to track those crossing the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan.
The government installed the computerized system on a trial basis in January 2007 to try and control illegal cross-border traffic. The system uses fingerprints and retina scans for identification.
