Director-General (DG) of the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) Major General Asif Ghafoor. Photo: Geo News file

 

ISLAMABAD: Director-General (DG) Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) Major General Asif Ghafoor on Wednesday said no amount of coercion can dictate Pakistan how to continue. 

"No amount of coercion can dictate us how to continue," he said in an exclusive interview with Geo News. "We wish to move forward through cooperative engagement but we will not compromise on self-respect." 

In response to a question about the tough statements from the US and the country not willing to consider Pakistan a friend and ally, the DG ISPR said that Pakistan continues to consider the US an ally. 

"As far as Pakistan is concerned, we consider them allies. Our relationship has had its ups and downs but still, we are friends," Major General Ghafoor said. 

He continued to say that Pakistan and the United States have a history of cooperation. 

"We had a choice at one point of time when we could have opted for the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) but we preferred the US instead," he said.  

Pakistan fought the war against terrorism and deployed its forces on the border, said DG ISPR, adding that the Pakistani forces conducted operations against the Haqqani network and in North Waziristan but the effects cannot be immediately visible.

"Effects of these operations cannot be visible immediately," he said. "Only time will how effective these operations were [in establishing peace within the region.]"

In regards to the double-game accusation, the military spokesperson said that the two countries are allies and Pakistan has supported the US. 

"We have a very long list of occasions when we cooperated with the US but on the other hand, there were many times when the US didn?t support us," said the DG ISPR. "Our relationship has had its ups and downs but we continue to be friends." 

'Reimbursement not aid'

Major General Ghafoor emphasised that the US had only reimbursed the expenditure Pakistan had incurred in the war against terrorism in Afghanistan. 

"The Coalition Support Fund, as evident from its name, was received as a reimbursement for operations that were carried out to support the US," he said. 

He added that the two countries have a bilateral cooperation which includes bilateral finances and coalition fund for war in Afghanistan.

"We received an amount between $15-20 billion in coalition funds for our military expenditure in Afghanistan, while the national exchequer incurred $123 billion in losses," the DG ISPR said. 

He stressed that the sole objective of Pakistan's war is to establish regional peace.

'Better relations with India not possible till issues resolved'

Discussing India's new role in the region in the new US foreign policy for South Asia, Major General Ghafoor said that a single country cannot be assigned the role to guarantee peace in the region. 

?There are countries in the region that want to increase the differences between Pakistan and the US,? he said, in an apparent reference to India. ?We are a nuclear power; we do not need security guarantees from anyone.?

He further stressed that peace with India is not possible till the pending issues with the country?s eastern neighbour are resolved. 

"India has used Afghan soil to support terrorism in Pakistan and Kulbhushan Jadhav is one such example," he said, accusing India of hindering Pakistan from establishing peace. 

"India does not want Pakistan to proceed on the path of peace; it keeps engaging us towards itself," said DG ISPR. "India would never like Pakistan to succeed in its efforts towards terrorism."