PESHAWAR: Candace Putnam, the US consul-general in Peshawar, has said that her government will very much like to see a military operation in North Waziristan, but it’s up to the Pakistani government and army to decide where and when they need to fight.
Addressing a news conference here on Tuesday, she said that Washington greatly respected and admired the progress the Pakistan military had made in fighting the militants.
“We are convinced that you are determined to regain control of all of your territory and it’s not up to us to say to your military commanders what to do and when. At the same time, we very much would like to see action in North Waziristan,” she said.
“The Haqqani network is killing our soldiers. It’s understandable,” she said.
Ms Putnam brushed aside the speculation that the United States was fleeing from Afghanistan and stressed that the battle there was not over yet.
“Our strategy has not changed and President (Obama) has been very clear. Our main goal there is to defeat, dismantle (and) disrupt Al Qaeda. The president agreed to a surge in troops to help in that battle in Afghanistan,” she said.
Additional troops planned to be deployed in Afghanistan had not even reached the country, she said. Therefore, it was premature to say that the fight was over.
Ms Putnam, who would be relinquishing her charge at the end of the week to make way for the new consul general, Elizabeth H. Rood, reiterated that the US would start the withdrawal process of the surged troops in next July. “But this does not mean we are pulling out and fleeing Afghanistan. That is not the case.”
She alleged that extremists had found a safe heaven in the border region between Pakistan and Afghanistan and that was the reason Pakistan troops were fighting in that region.
She praised the Pakistan Army and police for making extraordinarily good progress in the battle against militancy in the tribal regions.
“Our hope is that you will succeed and this area will never become a safe heaven for these people to launch attacks against us and against you.”
Asked if the US would support similar action in Punjab, a careful Ms Putnam said that it was up to the government of Pakistan and Punjab to decide how to deal with reports of militancy in the province.
She did not agree to a question about reports of misuse of USAID and stressed that they were working very hard to make sure that the aid reached the right recipients.
“Do we succeed a hundred per cent of the tight? No. No-one ever succeeds a per cent of the time in this effort. But we do take extraordinary steps to monitor our assistance to check and double check and to triple check to make sure that the aid reached the right people.”
She said that her government was assisting the government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to set up a hotline to enable people to report any complaints about the aid spending.
She acknowledged that there had been frustrations that the US assistance was slow in coming but maintained that bureaucratic and security issues were the main reasons for the delay.
Nonetheless, she said, the US had assisted the Fata secretariat to complete over a thousand small projects in Fata and it was spending a lot of money in Malakand in stabilisation and recovery there to fix the infrastructure that was destroyed, increase capacity and improve services.
She said that it took the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government a while to approve the design and complete the process for the construction of 150 schools in Malakand.But now, she said, tenders had been floated for 38 schools, the construction of which should begin this moth.
Of the 150 schools, she said, the US would be funding reconstruction of 108 schools besides 35 health clinics and six water systems.
“There will be more projects coming to recover the economy and to assist the population.”
“We are convinced that you are determined to regain control of all of your territory and it’s not up to us to say to your military commanders what to do and when. At the same time, we very much would like to see action in North Waziristan,” she said.
“The Haqqani network is killing our soldiers. It’s understandable,” she said.
Ms Putnam brushed aside the speculation that the United States was fleeing from Afghanistan and stressed that the battle there was not over yet.
“Our strategy has not changed and President (Obama) has been very clear. Our main goal there is to defeat, dismantle (and) disrupt Al Qaeda. The president agreed to a surge in troops to help in that battle in Afghanistan,” she said.
Additional troops planned to be deployed in Afghanistan had not even reached the country, she said. Therefore, it was premature to say that the fight was over.
Ms Putnam, who would be relinquishing her charge at the end of the week to make way for the new consul general, Elizabeth H. Rood, reiterated that the US would start the withdrawal process of the surged troops in next July. “But this does not mean we are pulling out and fleeing Afghanistan. That is not the case.”
She alleged that extremists had found a safe heaven in the border region between Pakistan and Afghanistan and that was the reason Pakistan troops were fighting in that region.
She praised the Pakistan Army and police for making extraordinarily good progress in the battle against militancy in the tribal regions.
“Our hope is that you will succeed and this area will never become a safe heaven for these people to launch attacks against us and against you.”
Asked if the US would support similar action in Punjab, a careful Ms Putnam said that it was up to the government of Pakistan and Punjab to decide how to deal with reports of militancy in the province.
She did not agree to a question about reports of misuse of USAID and stressed that they were working very hard to make sure that the aid reached the right recipients.
“Do we succeed a hundred per cent of the tight? No. No-one ever succeeds a per cent of the time in this effort. But we do take extraordinary steps to monitor our assistance to check and double check and to triple check to make sure that the aid reached the right people.”
She said that her government was assisting the government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to set up a hotline to enable people to report any complaints about the aid spending.
She acknowledged that there had been frustrations that the US assistance was slow in coming but maintained that bureaucratic and security issues were the main reasons for the delay.
Nonetheless, she said, the US had assisted the Fata secretariat to complete over a thousand small projects in Fata and it was spending a lot of money in Malakand in stabilisation and recovery there to fix the infrastructure that was destroyed, increase capacity and improve services.
She said that it took the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government a while to approve the design and complete the process for the construction of 150 schools in Malakand.But now, she said, tenders had been floated for 38 schools, the construction of which should begin this moth.
Of the 150 schools, she said, the US would be funding reconstruction of 108 schools besides 35 health clinics and six water systems.
“There will be more projects coming to recover the economy and to assist the population.”
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