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Pakistan to discuss arms purchases with US

	April 29, 2002

Pakistan will discuss the purchase of military equipment and spares at a Pakistan-US Consultative Group (CG) meeting likely next month, a government official said.

The US imposed sanctions following Pakistan’s nuclear tests in 1998 but removed them last year. “There are many issues that Pakistan would like to raise, including the possible purchase of military equipment and spares under the Foreign Military Sales Agreement,” the official said.

“The Defence Ministry has received proposals from the three Services about the equipment required. Since sanctions on Pakistan have been lifted, we hope to take up the purchases with the US at the (CG) meeting.”

The official said a meeting of Defence Ministry and military experts would take place in Islamabad to review proposals and finalise a list of items to be purchased from the US The Defence Ministry asked the Foreign Office to take up the issue with the Pakistan Embassy in Washington so the dates for the CG meeting could be finalised.

The first meeting after revival of the group in February this year is expected in Rawalpindi by May end.

The group was disbanded and revived many times in the wake of US sanctions on Pakistan. The group was last revived in 1994 during then US Defence Secretary William J. Perry’s visit to Pakistan but was disbanded in 1998 after the nuclear tests. On the issue of purchasing 28 F-16s, manufactured for Pakistan but never delivered in the wake of the US sanctions, the official said, “We are not in a hurry. We are following the policy of wait and watch.” President Pervez Musharraf, during his visit to the US, had hinted that Pakistan would be able to get the remaining F-16s. He, however, did not give an exact date of delivery. In December 1998 the US reimbursed $658 million that Islamabad paid for the delivery of the jets.

The US offered to sell these jets to several countries, including the Philippines, but none showed any interest primarily because they were manufactured in the early 90s and their technology had become outdated.



Not in India’s interest to pull back troops from border: Fernandes

India has said it would not be in its interest to pull back its troops deployed along the Pakistan border as Islamabad had not stopped supporting trans-national terrorism. Defence Minister George Fernandes told the Rajya Sabha or the Upper House of Parliament that government had decided to retain troops on the tense western frontier with Pakistan to “meet any exigencies.

“There is no improvement in the cross-border terrorism abetted by Pakistan,” he said. “Accordingly, the government of India has decided that in order to meet any exigencies, it would be in the interest of the nation to continue the deployment of troops on the border.”

Nearly a million Indian and Pakistani troops were deployed along the border in the largest military build-up by the two countries since they fought a war in 1971.

Although India plans to conduct some war games in the vicinity of the Pakistan border in the coming months, there are signs of an easing in the situation along the frontier. The Indian Army has begun allowing senior commanders to go on leave for the first time since the deployment started in mid-December, and General S. Padmanabhan went on a week-long visit to the US, his first overseas engagement since December. Fernandes said the cost of the ongoing deployment could be properly assessed only after the mobilisation is over.

The deployment has already resulted in some 60 casualties, mostly of soldiers. These persons were killed in accidents involving mines, which have been laid in large numbers along the border to deter advances by Pakistani forces in the event of hostilities.

The government has acknowledged that farmers have been unable to cultivate their fields due to the laying of mines and occupation of their land by the Army. It has also admitted that crops in border areas were damaged due to the mobilisation. The Defence Ministry has provided Rs.498 million to the governments of Punjab and Rajasthan states to pay compensation to farmers.

Meanwhile, the Indian Army has mooted a proposal for permanently shifting hundreds of people living in villages near the Pakistan border in Jammu and Kashmir to the relative safety of the state’s interiors. Highly placed sources in the Indian Army said this would save the people the harassment of uprooting them from their homes every time tensions escalate along the frontier.

The Army’s proposal came in the wake of the protracted military standoff between the two countries, resulting in hardships for residents in villages along the border during the past four months.

India has a 185-km international border and a 742-km military Line of Control (LoC) with Pakistan in Jammu and Kashmir. The frontier is regarded as highly explosive and witnesses frequent exchanges of fire between Indian and Pakistani troops. Villagers living near the border were told to vacate their homes as Indian troops rambled over fertile farmland, laying mines to deter a Pakistani advance in the event of hostilities.

The Army wants New Delhi to draw up a rehabilitation package for border residents who could be relocated to interiors and given land and money there to construct houses. This would be a huge exercise costing billions of rupees. The Jammu and Kashmir government, however, is averse to the proposal. Officials say the state does not have adequate resources to resettle the border villagers. The borders in Jammu and Kashmir have witnessed hostilities during the three wars fought by Indian and Pakistan since 1947. Even at other times, a war-like situation has persisted on the borders due to the frequent exchanges of fire.



Pakistan can ill-afford military build-up, warns World Bank

The World Bank has advised Pakistan to normalise ties with India, saying Islamabad can ill afford to spend an additional Rs.15 billion to maintain its troops in the military standoff.

In a report entitled “Pakistan Development Policy Review,” the Bank said: “Some 400,000 troops are currently on the India-Pakistan border in a high state of readiness, which is presumably the main reason for the additional Rs.15 billion expected in Defence spending in financial year 2002. “This is a sum that Pakistan with its debt problems and unfulfilled social needs can ill afford.”

If the crisis was resolved instead and India-Pakistan relations normalised, benefits would be enormous for both the countries and proportionately larger for Pakistan, the Bank said. The report said it was more likely the current standoff would be maintained longer than assumed. “Not only could Defence expenditure be prudently cut further, releasing fiscal resources for the development budget, but trade would be expected to expand dramatically from its pitifully low current level. India accounts for only 0.9 percent of Pakistan’s exports.

The report mentioned how there were severe risks arising from Pakistan’s strained relations with India.

“At its worst, the Kashmir crisis could end in a nuclear exchange that would wreak enormous physical and economic devastation in both India and Pakistan,” it said.

The report noted that Pakistan’s military spending, which has been on a downward trend throughout the 1990s, fell to 4.5 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP) - the sum of goods and services produced - during 2001, and is projected at four percent in 2002.

If regional tensions subside and the Kashmir dispute is resolved, this could provide a further fiscal cushion from a “peace dividend,” the report said. On the other hand if Pakistan engages in a new arms race with India, it could undoubtedly face a financial disaster.



Pakistan fears fallout of being US attack base

Pakistan is nervous about US operations on its territory against suspected Al Qaeda hideouts, especially in view of the upcoming referendum to extend President Pervez Musharraf’s rule, the Washington Post reported.

The referendum will decide on extending Musharraf’s rule by five years. He had seized power through a bloodless coup in 1999. Pakistan has asked the US to be quiet about its activities inside the country, which involve the presence of American warplanes and troops at four Pakistani bases, said the Post.

The expansion of the war into Pakistan means the US recognises that the Al Qaeda is operating on both sides of the border. However, it runs the risk of increasing the political turmoil in Pakistan, where Musharraf’s support for the war has sparked considerable opposition from Islamic political parties.

The daily, however, quoted Pakistan government spokesman Maj. Gen. Rashid Qureshi as saying that he had no knowledge of US military operations inside Pakistan. “I think there’s some confusion. What I’d heard earlier is that the only thing that may be happening is a communication link. I don’t think any Special Forces or Delta Force commandos are operating inside Pakistan,” he said. The report quoted Col. Rick Thomas, a spokesman for the US Central Command, as saying that “Pakistan has been a staunch ally in the war against terrorism” and that, as part of that, the US military has established liaison arrangements with the Pakistani military.

The Post quoted US military officials as saying that covert American units have been conducting reconnaissance operations in Pakistan in recent weeks and participated in attacks on suspected Al Qaeda hideouts there.

This opens a new front in the shadowy war being waged by the US along the mountainous Afghan-Pakistan border.

US Special Forces troops based on the Afghanistan side of the frontier have been attacked several times over the last month and have engaged in several firefights with Al Qaeda fighters, these officials said.

The Americans have suffered some casualties, though no one has been killed.

American forces are active not only in the Paktia and Paktika provinces in Afghanistan — areas south of Kabul where US officials say pockets of Al Qaeda units remain — but also in adjacent tribal areas in Pakistan where Islamabad has only limited authority.