Country will never act as US proxy in any war: Asif

ISLAMABAD: While giving a policy statement in the National Assembly, Foreign Minister Khawaja Asif said that Pakistan would not serve as a proxy for the United States in any war.
Another minister told the house that the government planned to repatriate Afghan refugees in two years.
The foreign minister said people of Afghanistan and other Muslim countries often wanted Pakistan to take part in the wars fought within their borders. “However Pakistan will not act as a proxy in any US-led war,” he said.
Afghan refugees to be repatriated in two years
Mr Asif was responding to a calling-attention notice of Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman who wanted to know why Pakistan had not voted against the war in Syria during a debate in the UN Human Rights Committee.
Mr Rehman said that of the eight Muslim countries in the committee three Muslim states did not cast their votes, including Pakistan.
The minister said that lack of harmony and unity among the Muslim countries was the main reason behind the various problems they were facing. “No enemy can harm Muslims if they do not become facilitators of the enemy.” He said everyone knew who had taken the militant Islamic State group from Iraq to Afghanistan. The next target of the militant group could very well be Pakistan.
“Pakistan has always remained a target of others because people of all warring Muslim states look towards Pakistan and its armed forces for help,” he said.
In the past Pakistani rulers compromised the country’s sovereignty only to protect their own rule and interests, and fought a “fake jihad” for the defence of the US, said Mr Asif. “That was one of the biggest mistakes that we have committed.
“Pakistan fought a made-in-America jihad against Russia in Afghanistan. We committed the same mistake after 9/11,” he said.
The minister claimed that despite pressures and temptations the present government did not become part of any war being fought in a Muslim country, adding that Pakistani troops were sent to Saudi Arabia only for training purposes and not to take part in Yemeni war.
He discussed various crises in the Middle East and without naming the US appeared to hold the superpower responsible for unrest in the region.