US official nails Malik’s lie, confirms private security firm’s presence in Pak

ISLAMABAD - In what clearly nails Pakistan Interior Minister Rehman Malik’s consistent denial regarding the presence of private US security firms on the country’s soil, a senior American official has sought land from the government for establishing a aircraft maintenance base for Dyncorp.

Assistant Secretary for Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (BINLEA), David Johnson, who is currently on a visit to Pakistan, said the Pakistan government has been asked to provide land for setting up of an aircraft maintenance base for the Interior Ministry’s air wing, which was sponsored by the US.

“We have requested the Government of Pakistan to provide land for carrying out maintenance and repair of the Ministry of Interior’s 50th Squadron Air Wing in Quetta,” The Nation quoted Johnson, as saying.

“We have no proposal under consideration to cancel the contract or change the contractor for maintenance and repair of the Air Wing,” he added.

Johnson said he has already met Interior Minister Rehman Malik and told him about the need to set up the aircraft maintenance workshop.

It is pertinent to mention here that while addressing the National Assembly earlier this year, Malik had vehemently denied the presence of private US security firms Blackwater and Dyncorp inside the country.

“Neither Blackwater nor any other security agency with such name is operating in Pakistan,” Malik had said. (ANI)