ISLAMABAD: National Security Adviser (NSA) Dr Moeed Yusuf has said that ‘Pakistan will never be up for sale’ and will stand for its interests because Prime Minister Imran Khan has set a new paradigm.
“Pakistan is going to stand for what its interests are, not emotively but very pragmatically,” he said during an interview with Global Space Village.
“This has invited much criticism, with many deeming it a mistake, but it is true – Pakistan no longer will host [air] bases” to any other country in the future, he stressed.
For the past 20 years, there was an unwinnable war that “some wanted Pakistan to win for them, which was simply an unrealistic goal,” said the NSA.
“This is a paradigm that this prime minister has set with every country and not just the United States,” he said, adding that “If there is a condition which Pakistan does not feel to be in its interest, we will not go for it”.
Pakistan kept insisting that the war in Afghanistan could not be won militarily, he continued.
Referring to the United States (US) withdrawal from Afghanistan, he said the non-military strategy could have saved the Western world from embarrassment.
“They bought New Delhi’s and Kabul’s narrative – lock, stock, and barrel – and this is what they have gotten for it,” he said.
‘Pakistan seeks good relations with US’
He reiterated that Pakistan was “not in any camp,” and despite its relationship with China, it wanted very good relations with the US.
Dr Yusuf stressed that the contours of the Pak-US relationship could not be from the lenses of Afghanistan, India or China.
“It has to be a bilateral relationship, a give and take as equals where mutual interests lie. That has to be worked out now,” he said.
Pakistan was not in the ‘old mould,’ whereby the US could divide and rule Pakistan’s house, talk to one office to get something done, use the civil-military disconnect that used to happen and get what it needs, he added categorically.
“No civil-military disconnect anymore’
“There is no civil-military disconnect anymore [in Pakistan], and a coordinated effort is in place,” Dr Yusuf confirmed clarified.
“I have said this in public before, and I will say it again, 150 per cent support from the military, the ISI, and the prime minister is in place.”