Pakistan denies having US military, airbase inside its land

Such "baseless and irresponsible speculations" must be avoided, clarified spokesperson.

Responding to media queries, the Spokesperson stated that there was no U.S. military or airbase in Pakistan; nor was any such proposal envisaged.

Any speculation on this account was baseless and irresponsible and should be avoided.

 The Spokesperson added that Pakistan and the U.S. have a framework of cooperation in terms of Air Lines of Communication (ALOC) and Ground Lines of Communication (GLOC) in place since 2001.

“No new agreement has been made in this regard,” he maintained.

Speculations started doing the rounds after a media report stated that Pakistan would continue to provide air and ground access to the US military for its Afghan operations.

Assistant Secretary of Defence for Indo-Pacific Affairs David F Helvey told US lawmakers during a meeting of the Senate Armed Services Committee that Pakistan would continue to provide air and ground access to the US.

“Pakistan has played an important role in Afghanistan. They supported the Afghan peace process. Pakistan also has allowed us to have overflight and access to be able to support our military presence in Afghanistan,” Helvey said.

He said the US will continue its conversation with Pakistan because of its support and contribution to the future of Afghanistan.

Pakistan has always allowed overflights and ground access to the US to facilitate its military presence in Afghanistan and will continue to do so, diplomatic sources were quoted as saying by a local newspaper.

In response to another question, Helvey said: “We will have to work with our local and regional partners, and we want to continue developing those capabilities and those partnerships to be able to ensure that we have the right of framework to address the threats.”