ISLAMABAD - Pakistan Army has taken partial control of Shamsi airbase which was used by the CIA to operate drones, highly placed sources told TheNation on Saturday.
Sources said matter remains between Pakistan and the United Arab Emirates which has taken Shamsi facility for hunting of Houbara Bustard in 1992.
Issue of Shamsi remains between Pakistan and the UAE. A dialogue at civil and military level will shortly take place between the two countries, said the sources.
They informed the CIA has shifted drone operations to Nangarhar province of Afghanistan. At this time no US national is present at the Shamsi base located in Kharan near Chaghai where Pakistan had tested its nuclear capability way back in May 1998. Defence Minister Ch Ahmad Mukhtar had said on June 30 that Army would shortly take control of Shamsi airbase.
He stated: Pakistan had leased Shamsi airbase to United Arab Emirates in 1992. In global war against terrorism, the UAE handed over operational control of the base to the US. On May 19, the Parliament was told by a top air force commander that the US was making drone flights from Shamsi which according to an agreement was under UAE control. The comment stunned lawmakers and ordinary citizens - who in the wake of May 2 US raid that killed Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden in Abbottabad had been questioning whether their nation was surrendering its sovereignty.
The UAE government had officially denied that its forces were using Shamsi sand strip. Oil rich Arab Shaikhs have occasionally used this facility for hunting between months of January to April.
The Shamsi airfield - mainly a sand strip with no control tower, in a sparsely populated rugged province of Balochistan about 1,000 km southwest of Islamabad - has been used in the past by US troops. Under the original agreement, Musharraf regime had allowed the US forces to use Shamsi as a rescue facility for the American troops mostly lifted from US naval ship to Afghanistan by Chinook helicopters after US invasion of Afghanistan in 2001.
On record the government of Pakistan at no level allowed the US to use Shamsi for CIA operations.
Later on, years proved the US was not using Shamsi as a mere rescue and relief facility but it had stationed its unmanned predators here.
http://nation.com.pk/pakistan-news-...011/Army-takes-partial-control-of-Shamsi-base
