PAKISTAN PM BEMOANS 'TRUST DEFICIT' AND CONDEMNS DRONE STRIKES

DAVOS, Switzerland, Jan 28, 2012 (AFP) - Pakistan's prime minister said on Saturday there was “a trust deficit” between Islamabad and Washington as he criticised the resumption of US drone strikes on his country's tribal belt.

Speaking the day after over 100,000 people massed in Karachi to protest the strikes, Yousuf Raza Gilani said they only served to bolster militants.

“Drones are counter-productive. We have very ably isolated militants from the local tribes. When there are drone attacks that creates sym- pathy for them again,” Gilani told reporters at the Davos forum.

“It makes the job of the political leadership and the military very difficult. We have never allowed the drone attacks and we have always maintained that they are unacceptable, illegal and counterproductive.”

US officials however insist that Pakistani leaders privately cooperate with the programme.

Relations between the United States and Pakistan have deteriorated sharply over the last year, since the surprise raid on Al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden's hideout in Abbottabad last year. the situation worsened after an US air strike in November in which 24 Pakistani soldiers were killed.

The US halted drone strikes on Pakistan soil in the immediate aftermath of that strike but the drone strikes have since resumed.

Gilani said Pakistan now wanted to agree new rules of engagement with the United States. “The unilateral action taken in Abbottabad, that was not liked in any quarter ... We need assurances that such a unilateral action will not be repeated in the future. There is a trust deficit.”

“We want to work together and we are fighting against militants and terrorists. We have paid a huge price for that.”

Insurgents largely based in the tribal border lands have carried out bomb and gun attacks killing nearly 4,800 people across Pakistan since July 2007.