ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf leader Fawad Chaudhry on Saturday quizzed whether the government allowed the US to use Pakistan’s airspace for conducting a drone attack in Kabul that killed Al Qaeda leader Ayman al Zawahiri.
The United States killed Zawahiri with a missile fired from a drone while he stood on a balcony at his Kabul hideout on Sunday, US officials said, in the biggest blow to the militants since US Navy SEALS shot dead Osama bin Laden more than a decade ago.
Taking to twitter, the former federal minister said ““In the recent Afghanistan drone attack, the question is not if Pakistan’s soil was used but if its airspace was allowed to be used. Repeatedly stating that Pakistan’s land was not used does not clarify the situation.”
The senior PTI leader demanded relevant ministries issue a formal statement in response to his question as their current comments were “unclear”.
افغانستان کے ڈرون حملے میں پاکستان کی زمین استعمال ہونے کا سوال نہیں ہے سوال یہ ہے کہ پاکستان کی فضاء استعمال کرنے کی اجازت دی گئ یا نہیں؟ بار بار یہ بیان کہ پاکستان کی سرزمین استعمال نہیں ہوئ غیر واضع بات ہے متعلقہ وزارتوں کو وضع بیان جاری کرنا ہو گا
— Ch Fawad Hussain (@fawadchaudhry) August 6, 2022
Earlier, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Director-General Inter-Services Public Relations Major General Babar Iftikhar said that the country’s soil was not used for the drone strike in Kabul.
“The Foreign Ministry has issued a clear statement regarding Ayman Al-Zawahiri. It is impossible that Pakistan’s soil has been used for this,” he said, adding that irrelevant comments are made without any evidence.
In his weekly press briefing in Islamabad, Foreign Office spokesperson Asim Iftikhar Ahmad categorically rejected reports that Pakistan’s airspace had been used for the United States drone strike.
