E-paper PakistanToday KHI 14th December, 2011

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700,000 tax thieves to be clawed this fiscal year: Dr Sheikh

Students recount horrors of ‘madrassa’ imprisonment

A shared aim: all children reading

PROFIT | PAGE 01

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Rs15.00 Vol ii no 167 22 pages Karachi edition

Envoys suggest renegotiation of deals with US g

KARACHI: Young students cry after being rescued following a police raid on Madrassa Zakarya late on Monday. Police rescued 60 students found chained in the basement during a raid. afP | Story on PaGe 24

ISLAMABAD

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He two-day ‘envoys’ Conference’ concluded here on Tuesday with a strong recommendation to the government to renegotiate two vital agreements with the United States and NATO, one for supplies to the US-led foreign troops in Afghanistan and the other for ‘logistic support’ extended to Washington back in 2002. Both of these vital agreements were made by the government of former president Pervez Musharraf with the Bush administration in 2002, a few months after the United States ousted the Taliban government for sheltering al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden, who was blamed by the US for the 9/11 terrorist attacks. The agreement with International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) agreed upon in June 2002 was about NATO supplies for troops in Afghanistan, which was suspended by Islamabad last month in the wake of the Mohmand Agency air strike by NATO in which 24 Pakistani soldiers were killed. “The second agreement reached back in February 2002 was about extending logistic support to the US, including the use of Pakistani air bases and airspace, etc,” said a senior Pakistani official who wished to re-

main unnamed. He said the conference recommended that future security cooperation with any nation, including the US, should be approved by parliament. CIA IMPRINT: The conference, which was attended by 15 Pakistani envoys from important world capitals including Washington also recommended the government seek a clear ‘CIA imprint’ in Pakistan from the United States and also that there must not be any drone strikes on Pakistani soil unless and until it is asked for by Islamabad and intelligence on the intended targets is given. The conference asked the government to seek a firm assurance from the US about no more unilateral strikes in Pakistan or border attacks on the pattern of the Mohmand air strike. The envoys also recommended the government pursue with vigour the ongoing reconciliation process in Afghanistan with the Taliban regardless of whether other countries did that or not. RESUMPTION OF NATO SUPPLIES: The draft of recommendations prepared by the envoys’ committee, headed by Pakistan’s Ambassador-designate to the US Sherry Rehman, sought linking of the restoration of NATO supplies to satisfactory results of the US enquiry into the Mohmand Agency attack. Continued on page 04

Panetta asks Kayani to help resume NATO supplies ISLAMABAD STAFF REPORT

US Secretary of Defence Leon Panetta made a phone call to Chief of Army Staff General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani on Tuesday and sought his ‘good offices’ for the resumption of NATO supplies to Afghanistan through Pakistan, as the top NATO commander in Afghanistan Marine General John Allen revealed for the first time that he spoke to General Kayani on the phone on Monday their first conversation since the November 26 NATO air strikes - and said he was seeing some signs of a possible lifting of Pakistan’s communications blackout imposed on the US-led coalition after the NATO attack. Panetta, who was on an unannounced visit to Afghanistan to discuss the latest situation there with Afghan authorities, telephoned the army chief a day after General Allen. Panetta, who said in Kabul that it was important to reach out to Pakistan if the United States wanted to dismantle Afghan militant havens, told General Kayani that his country wanted normalisation of ties with Islamabad as it was vital to win the ongoing war on terror.

Gilani tells envoys Pakistan will not accept flagrant transgression of its frontiers SHAIQ HUSSAIN

Wednesday, 14 december, 2011 Muharram-ul-Haram 18, 1433

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US reins in drone strikes for fear of getting shot down ISLAMABAD STAFF REPORT

As the United States holds back on its drone strikes in the tribal areas in the wake of the deadly NATO strike on Pakistani checkposts in Mohmand Agency that killed 24 soldiers, officials here said the US feared that the drones could be shot down after clear indications given

by Pakistani authorities in this regard. There has not been a single drone attack since the NATO strike on Salala checkpost in Mohmand last month and the US has put the campaign “on hold”, according to American news website The Long War Journal. Several US intelligence officials involved in the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) programme, which uses unmanned Predator and

Reaper strike aircraft, more commonly called drones, told Journal that US officials feared that an attack at this point in time would further damage the already fragile relationship between the US and Pakistan. However, a diplomatic source here said that clear indications had been passed to the US side during the Continued on page 04


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