Zardari asks US to stop drone attacks

By Mirza Hassan Apr 27th, 2012 ( 1 Comment )

Islamabad: President Asif Ali Zardari has again told the US that drone attacks inside Pakistan are useless and counterproductive.

He was talking to visiting US Special Envoy for Pakistan and Afghanistan Marc Grossman, who is on a two-day visit here to hold talks with Pakistani leadership over the resumption of ties between the two countries.

Zardari said that after Pakistan has followed the democratic course for the re-engagement with the US to be based on transparency, mutual interest and respect, it was now the US turn to fully appreciate the democratic course and to help Pakistan in reaching closure on Salala by helping the Pakistan Government follow the path as indicated by the Parliament.

Spokesperson to the President Senator Farhatullah Babar while briefing about the meeting said that during meeting the President emphasized upon the need for evolving a mechanism for counter-terrorism cooperation between the two countries. He said that bridging the trust-deficit holds the key to Pakistan re-joining the counter-terrorism cooperation.

He said president told Grossman that Pakistan and the United States shared many important areas where there was convergence of mutual interests. He said that most notable among those were the goals of stability and peace in Afghanistan and the complete defeat of Al-Qaeda.

President Zardari said that Pakistan has always maintained that drone attacks were highly counter-productive in the war against militants as it inflamed public sentiments due to innocent civilian casualties. He said that both the sides should consider setting up a framework of mechanism to find mutually acceptable alternatives.