Washington: Pakistan is not taking enough
steps against the use of fertilisers within the country, which
are used in making impoverished explosive devices (IEDs) one
of the major causes of casualties of US soldiers in
Afghanistan’s Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton has told
lawmakers.
Testifying before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee
yesterday, Hillary told lawmakers, who expressed concern over
the inability of Islamabad to take strong against IEDs, that
she has raised this issue at the highest level including last
week when she met Pakistan`s foreign minister Hina Rabbani
Khar in London.
"I raised it at the very highest levels of the Pakistani
government one more time. I discussed it at some length last
Thursday in London with the foreign minister. And it`s very
clear they need to do more. And they need to do more for
themselves," Hillary said in response to the questions from
Senator Robert Casey.
"I mean our concern is very much rooted in the terrible
attacks that take place in Afghanistan against our soldiers,
against other targets there, but, you know, in 2011, there
were 1,966 terrorist attacks in Pakistan, which resulted in
2,391 deaths, the vast majority of which were the IEDs," she
said.
"So our point to Pakistan has been this is not about the
US, NATO, ISAF, Afghanistan alone; this is also about you.
Now, what they have done is they have introduced legislation
in their national assembly. I`ve been told they expect to pass
it shortly," Hillary told the lawmakers.
"It is focused on the transport of calcium ammonium
nitrate. They have an implementation plan in the works. We`ve
had several expert meetings with them on their national
counter-IED strategy that they approved in June 2011.
Deliberating further, Hillary said, "They`re working,
actually, with their Afghan counterparts to improve
coordination on the border to restrict fertiliser imports.
We`ve had several productive meetings between the government
of Pakistan, the government of Afghanistan and ISAF over the
past year."
"So we`re making progress. I just have to say that when I
raised it directly with the very highest levels of the
military and civilian governance in Pakistan, there was a lot
of confusion. I mean they did not understand how fertiliser
that many of them told me they use on their own farms was such
a problem," she said.
"So I explained to them after the Oklahoma City bombing,
we had to reach the same conclusion and we had to go after the
use of fertiliser. And so they are, like, 10 to 15 years
behind us in terms of thinking through what this means and how
to do it.
"So they`re making progress, but they`re not doing enough
and they`re not moving fast enough," Hillary said.
PTI
