Pak to act against Taliban sanctuaries per its own timeline, not US pressure: Qureshi

LAHORE - Despite increasing US pressure on Islamabad to act swiftly against terrorists present in the country, thus helping turn around the war in Afghanistan, Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi has said that Pakistan would deal with Taliban sanctuaries along the Afghan border according to its own timeline.

“We have our own priorities. We have our own sense of timing,” the Daily Times quoted Qureshi, as saying, when asked by reporters about the US pressure on Pakistan to launch an offensive against the Taliban in North Waziristan, who regularly attack foreign troops in Afghanistan.

During a press conference after his return from the US, the minister pointed out that Pakistan had provided a new perspective to its relations with the United States, as it was not just accepting but also making the US accept its terms.

He also clarified that the recently announced aid for Pakistan was neither a loan nor a debt, but a grant that would be provided for education, health and other public sectors from the US taxpayers’ money, reported.

Calling the latest round of the US-Pak strategic dialogue in Washington “very successful,” he said that it would bring prosperity in the country, and added that it was the result of this dialogue that US President Barack Obama had assured of visiting the country in 2011.

He said that for the first time in the history of Pakistan, the government had done its homework to discuss thirteen key sectors with the US, besides terrorism and security. The other sectors discussed for the first time included health, education, agriculture and the energy crisis. (ANI)