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US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who is currently in Pakistan as a part of her three-day itinerary, has stressed that she believes that Al Qaeda exists in Pakistan and expressed her disbelief that the Pakistan government is unaware of its whereabouts.
“I find it hard to believe that nobody in your government knows where they are and couldn’t get them if they really wanted to,” said Hillary Clinton.
“Maybe that’s the case; maybe they’re not gettable. I don’t know... As far as we know, they are in Pakistan,” said the US Secretary of State, while addressing the media in Islamabad.
She mentioned that the intensity of problems faced by Pakistan aggravates because of the huge population it has. She has urged Islamabad to tackle the issue related to the growing population.
“You do have 180 million people. Your population is projected to be about 300 million. And, I don’t know what you’re going to do with that kind of challenge, unless you start planning right now,” Clinton said.
During her meeting with Chief of Army Staff General Ashfaq Pervez Kayani at Rawalpindi, she talked about issues related to security of Pakistan. Issues related to Pak-US strategic relations, covering the US-Pak cooperation in the ‘war on terror’ were discussed by the two.
US Special Representative for Pakistan and Afghanistan Richard Holbrooke, US Ambassador in Pakistan, Anne W. Peterson and Director General Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) Lieutenant General Ahmad Shuja Pasha also attended the meeting.
Matters relating to the Kerry-Lugar Bill and secret information sharing were discussed, the sources added.
