Pak to provide transit facility to NATO mission in Afghanistan

Islamabad, May 19 (UNI) Pakistan has confirmed it is negotiating an agreement with the 26-member North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) for the transit facility it had sought for its peace mission in Afghanistan.

''We are in the process of negotiating an agreement with NATO and it will be specific to the latter's peace mission in Afghanistan,'' the Dawn newspaper quoted Foreign Office spokesperson Tasneem Aslam as saying.

She said the agreement would be on the same lines as the one formalised with the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF).

The foreign ministry and military authorities were involved in the ongoing negotiations, she said, adding the transit facility would be confined to logistic support and was not for military operations.

The spokesperson was non-committal when asked when the agreement was expected to be signed.

Under the agreement, Pakistan will open its airspace and airfields to NATO aircraft carrying equipment and personnel to Afghanistan.

NATO will pay a transit fee for the facility.

The matter was one of the main talking points at NATO deputy secretary-general's meetings here with President Pervez Musharraf besides officials of the foreign ministry and defence establishment, during his visit last week.

After the meeting, deputy secretary-general Alessandro Minuto Rizzo announced that NATO would soon appoint a liaison officer here to coordinate its operations in Afghanistan.

NATO has expanded its role in the neighbouring country and taken over the command of the 37-nation ISAF which is expected to enhance its current strength of about 9,000 to around 15,000, the paper said.

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