MPs urge Gates expulsion from Pakistan

Source: PressTV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=116765&sectionid=351020401

Pakistani opposition lawmakers have urged the Islamabad government to expel visiting US Defense Secretary Robert Gates from the country.

Prominent opposition lawmaker Khurshid Ahmed told Press TV that Gates is maneuvering to force Pakistan to allow American security contractors into the country.

The remarks come after the US Defense Secretary confirmed that the US firms were operating in private capacities.

However, Gates added that the companies were abiding by Pakistani laws.

The opposition parliamentarians have protested Gates' visit to Pakistan accompanied by a huge delegation.

Opposition lawmakers accuse US security firms, including Blackwater, now known as Xe Services, of looking to locate Pakistan's nukes, under the cover of NGO activities.

Blackwater has gained widespread notoriety for killing civilians, with impunity and absolute immunity from prosecution, in Iraq and Afghanistan over the past few years.

A former head of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence had earlier told Press TV that the notorious firm, Blackwater, was involved in the deadly drone attacks on Pakistani territories, which usually result in civilian casualties.

"I learned somewhere that these people are employed certainly for the logistic support at the drone bases. That is understandable," Asad Durani said earlier in January.

Gates will try to win support from Pakistani leaders on the US war strategy in neighboring Afghanistan.

President Barack Obama and his NATO allies have ordered 40,000 more troops into war-weary Afghanistan which was invaded by US-led coalition forces in 2001.

Senior officials in Islamabad have said that Obama's new Afghan war strategy and the troop surge may destabilize Pakistan.

Hundreds of militants fled into Pakistan to escape the US-led invasion of Afghanistan, plunging the whole region into violent turmoil and instability.