Pak refuses to take action against Haqqani network

Pakistan will not take military action against the Haqqani network despite growing pressure from the United States, even as the country's top military commanders have agreed on the need to de-escalate the situation, according to media reports on Monday.

These decisions were made at a special meeting of the Corps Commanders chaired by Pakistan Army chief General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani on Saturday.

The commanders vowed to resist US demands for an offensive against the Haqqanis in North Waziristan but also discussed possible implications of unilateral action by America on Pakistani territory, a military official was quoted as saying by The Express Tribune.

The decision is "likely to chip away at the deteriorating relationship between the two countries", the report said.

"We have already conveyed to the US that Pakistan cannot go beyond what it has already done," the military official said.

Dawn newspaper quoted its sources as saying that the meeting of the Corps Commanders, probably the first held on a Sunday, had agreed on the need to de-escalate the situation.

The meeting held on a holiday "reflected the seriousness of the crisis" created by a series of allegations by US officials and a source told the daily that de-escalation efforts were afoot.

"Escalation is harmful. In the cost-benefit analysis, there appears to be no benefit of a confrontation," the source said. The Dawn too reported that "there was nothing to suggest that the army had agreed to act against the Haqqani network under US pressure".

It "would have grave consequences and would put the government and the military's backs to the wall," he said.

In yet another take on the situation, The News daily reported that Pakistan's top military commanders had "resolved to respond materially and effectively to any attack launched on Pakistan" from Afghanistan.

The commanders "rubbished recent US allegations accusing the Inter Services Intelligence of having links with the Haqqani network", the report said.

The News quoted an unnamed official as saying that the US "wants Pakistan to launch an operation in North Waziristan where the militants' hideouts and structures are allegedly so huge and heavy that any misadventure would bounce back with its heavy fallout on Pakistani public in major cities".

"Pakistan would certainly take action but nobody should push Pakistan to plunge into troubled spots. We would take action on our own, choosing the right time to do so," another official told the daily.

Several Pakistani officials and leaders viewed the US allegations as a ploy to launch an attack inside Pakistan like the one in Iraq, the report said.

Shortly after Sunday's Corps Commanders' meet, General Kayani left for Britain to address the International Institute for Strategic Studies and the Royal College of Defence Studies.