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US
Pushing Pakistan To Lease Land For Bases
By
our own correspondent in New Delhi
NEW
DELHI, Jan. 23 (IslamOnline) - The U.S. is pushing Pakistan to lease
around 20,000 acres to set up military bases, a no fly zone area,
and related facilities for its ground troops and other servicemen in
Baluchistan for a period of ten years, reports said Monday.
Pakistani
daily newspaper, The Nation, quoted unnamed official sources saying
that the area the U.S. wants to lease is located between Dalbadin
and Pasni and offers easy access to sea resources.
With
the demand for leasing of the land is also included the provision of
diplomatic immunity to U.S. military servicemen who are to be housed
at proposed military bases. The possible acceptance of the demand
would immune U.S. military men from the application of law of
Pakistan, sources explained.
The
land proposed for lease is expected to house large military
infrastructure of U.S. forces including independent air bases and
accommodation of ground troops to monitor the region.
The
U.S. authorities have been discussing the matter with high-ranking
Pakistani officials for the last one month, the paper quoted
official sources as saying. The paper added that the matter came
under discussion between Pakistani President, General Pervez
Musharraf, and U.S. Secretary of State, Colin Powell, during his
last visit to Islamabad.
The
Nation quoted ‘sources’ saying that Pakistan has so far resisted
the U.S. demand by offering the Americans to continue to occupy
Jacobabad base as an alternative option.
The U.S. is expected to offer Pakistan a good economic package,
including writing off a substantial amount of its external debt, to
get Islamabad to accept its strategic demand.
Former
chief of Pakistani Inter Services Intelligence (ISI), Lt. Gen.
(Retd) Hamid Gul, observed that if government surrenders to the
demand of the Americans on the subject “it would be the biggest
ever compromise by Pakistan”.
He
said the materialization of such a plan could severely affect
Pakistan’s longstanding relationship with China. The U.S. would
try to monitor eastern flank of Gulf, southern mouth of Central Asia
and Caspian Sea, he continued. India would also be a loser in this
strategic game plan as her military activities would be watched
closely by the U.S., he concluded.
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