New York:
Pakistan has denied reports that Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani has asked Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani to cut short her visit to the United States and has said she will return only after she has spoken at the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in New York on Tuesday as scheduled.
Pakistan is livid at America's scathing criticism of its powerful spy agency ISI's role in terror and Ms Khar had warned that the US could lose a key ally in the fight against terror. The US refused to be intimated by that statement and there were reports yesterday that Pakistan had called back its minister. Ms Khar is representing Pakistan at the UN meet in place of Mr Gilani.
(Pak PM calls off US visit after Obama refused to meet: Report)Sources have told NDTV that tense back-channel negotiations are on between Islamabad and Washington to defuse the latest crisis - America says that the ISI has trained the Haqqani network, the deadliest terrror group in Afghanistan and one that has carried out several recent attacks on US targets in Kabul. The Haqqani network has also targeted Indian interests in Afghanistan for years - it was responsible for the deadly bombing of the Indian embassy in Kabul in 2008.
(Read: Who are the Haqqanis?)The US has conveyed to the Pakistan government that it will take unilateral action against the Haqqani network, sources said.
(CIA created Haqqani network during Soviet occupation: Pak)
Pakistan has hit back, with Interior Minister Rehman Malik saying it is in fact the US that is to blame for the rise of the Haqqanis. "The Haqqani network was trained and produced by the
CIA," he said, pointing out that the group did not originate in Pakistan. Yes, he said, Pakistan had helped the CIA during the war against Soviet forces in Afghanistan in the
1980s, but "the US should not now speak about things which happened 20 years ago".
The sharp escalation of rhetoric between Pakistan and the US follows American military chief Admiral Mike Mullen's accusation last week that the ISI is backing the Haqqani network. An angry Pakistan immediately rejected the allegation, with Pakistan Army chief Gen Ashfaq Parvez Kayani saying they were not "based on facts". Ms Khar then warned the US that it risked losing its partnership with Pakistan if it continued criticising Islamabad.
In the face of the latest crisis, Pakistan is in a huddle. Prime Minister Gilani - who had cancelled his US visit ostensibly to oversee relief operations in flood-hit areas but was reported to have been miffed that US President Barack Obama refused to meet him on the sidelines of the UN meet - has convened an all-party meeting to mobilise a united stand to counter America's allegations. President Asif Ali Zardari, former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and other senior leaders across party lines are expected to attend the meeting.
It was a busy Sunday as Mr Gilani spoke to different political parties to develop a consensus. While Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman called on Mr Gilani, the premier also spoke on phone with PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif, Muttahida Qaumi Movement leader Altaf Hussain, Awami National Party chief Asfandyar Wali Khan, PML-Q chief Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain and Jamaat-e-Islami head Munawar Hassan.
Also, President Zardari has summoned a national assembly session on October 3 to discuss the security situation. On Sunday, Pakistan Army chief Gen Ashfaq Parvez Kayani chaired a six-hour special meeting of his Corps Commanders to review the security situation.
There was no official word on what transpired during the meeting but Geo News channel reported that the army commanders rejected the US accusations. They decided to give a "fitting response" to any cross-border attacks by militants based in Afghanistan, the channel reported. The army commanders reportedly agreed that General Kayani would meet President Zardari and Prime Minister Gilani to take the political leadership into confidence.
To the US, Pakistan's second highest ranking military officer expressed "concern about the negative statements." General Khalid Shameem Wynne, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee, at a meeting on Sunday with visiting US Central Command chief General James Mattis, called for "addressing the irritants" in the Pakistan-US relationship which are "a result of an extremely complex situation", a military statement said.
(With PTI inputs)