In October 2009, the Army was ready to launch an operation in Waziristan but President Asif Ali Zardari opposed the move on political grounds, Dawn reports on September 5 quoting a US diplomatic cable released by WikiLeaks. The cable deals with a meeting the then US ambassador in Pakistan, Anne W. Patterson, had with Army Chief General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani in Islamabad on October 6, 2009. In that meeting, Gen Kayani said the Pakistani military was going into Waziristan in force in two-four weeks but President Zardari had advised against it for political reasons and wanted to wait until spring. The message includes the ambassadors comments as well, noting that it is not entirely clear what this (`going in force`) meant. She also informed Washington that she planned to follow up with President Zardari on why he was opposing the proposed operation.
Waziristan operation was stopped by President Zardari: Wikileaks
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any links to this pls? thnks
got it.
Waziristan operation was stopped by Zardari in `09: cable | Pakistan | DAWN.COM
Zardari stopped Waziristan operation, says WikiLeaks | Pakistan Today | Latest news, Breaking news, Pakistan News, World news, business, sport and multimedia
copy pasting the complete post after the original @poster left off.. interesting read. thanks
Gen Kayani also informed the US envoy that he had met Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif and PML-N opposition leader Chaudhry Nisar in a much publicised “clandestine meeting solely to bring them on board for the Waziristan operation, not to discuss politics”.
“This outreach appears to have been successful. In a recent meeting with (US) political counsellors Shahbaz stated that the Waziristan operation was critical and needed to move forward immediately,” the ambassador commented.
According to the cable, ISI chief Gen Shuja Pasha was present at the meeting. It says both Gen Kayani and Gen Pasha told the ambassador that the Kerry-Lugar bill would set back the bilateral relationship, and that critical provisions in it were almost entirely directed against the army.
Both he and Mr Pasha claimed the bill refused to recognise the enormous progress which had been made bilaterally with the US military and against terrorism within Pakistan.
Ambassador Patterson said the provisions in the bill did not affect “real” money going to the security forces as it did not apply to the Pakistan Counter-insurgency Fund for 2009 and 2010.
The provisions did not apply to Coalition Support Funds either as the Kerry-Lugar only applied to Foreign Military Financing funds not yet appropriated, the ambassador said.
Gen Kayani said he understood that, just as he understood that the amount of funding available to the Pakistani military had increased very substantially under the new Pakistan Counter-insurgency Fund.
Ms Patterson asked about the likelihood for restarting the back-channel diplomacy with India, noting that the US had received a good readout from former foreign minister Khurshid Mahmood Kasuri, who was enthusiastic about the appointment of former foreign secretary Riaz Khan as the back-channel negotiator.
Gen Kayani said the ambassador should talk to President Zardari about restarting the back-channel where it “left off”.
Gen Kayani was not sure that Mr Zardari was “quite willing to wade into these political waters yet”.
Generals Kayani and Pasha both said they wanted this channel to succeed, and Mr Kayani expressed his confidence in Riaz Khan`s integrity and intelligence.
got it.
Waziristan operation was stopped by Zardari in `09: cable | Pakistan | DAWN.COM
Zardari stopped Waziristan operation, says WikiLeaks | Pakistan Today | Latest news, Breaking news, Pakistan News, World news, business, sport and multimedia
copy pasting the complete post after the original @poster left off.. interesting read. thanks
Gen Kayani also informed the US envoy that he had met Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif and PML-N opposition leader Chaudhry Nisar in a much publicised “clandestine meeting solely to bring them on board for the Waziristan operation, not to discuss politics”.
“This outreach appears to have been successful. In a recent meeting with (US) political counsellors Shahbaz stated that the Waziristan operation was critical and needed to move forward immediately,” the ambassador commented.
According to the cable, ISI chief Gen Shuja Pasha was present at the meeting. It says both Gen Kayani and Gen Pasha told the ambassador that the Kerry-Lugar bill would set back the bilateral relationship, and that critical provisions in it were almost entirely directed against the army.
Both he and Mr Pasha claimed the bill refused to recognise the enormous progress which had been made bilaterally with the US military and against terrorism within Pakistan.
Ambassador Patterson said the provisions in the bill did not affect “real” money going to the security forces as it did not apply to the Pakistan Counter-insurgency Fund for 2009 and 2010.
The provisions did not apply to Coalition Support Funds either as the Kerry-Lugar only applied to Foreign Military Financing funds not yet appropriated, the ambassador said.
Gen Kayani said he understood that, just as he understood that the amount of funding available to the Pakistani military had increased very substantially under the new Pakistan Counter-insurgency Fund.
Ms Patterson asked about the likelihood for restarting the back-channel diplomacy with India, noting that the US had received a good readout from former foreign minister Khurshid Mahmood Kasuri, who was enthusiastic about the appointment of former foreign secretary Riaz Khan as the back-channel negotiator.
Gen Kayani said the ambassador should talk to President Zardari about restarting the back-channel where it “left off”.
Gen Kayani was not sure that Mr Zardari was “quite willing to wade into these political waters yet”.
Generals Kayani and Pasha both said they wanted this channel to succeed, and Mr Kayani expressed his confidence in Riaz Khan`s integrity and intelligence.
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