Pakistan, which the US has decided to designate as ‘‘a major non-NATO ally’’, has provided five airbases to US forces and landing rights to their fighter aircraft anywhere in the country during emergency as part of its cooperation in the fight against Taliban and Al Qaeda.Pakistan has also granted two-thirds of its airspace as air corridors to the US-led coalition forces. ‘‘By doing so, Pakistan has had to reschedule or redirect many of the commercial flights,’’ Pakistani daily The News reported quoting a report of the US central command.It said that Pakistan has been providing on an average, 0.4 million litres of fuel per day to the US forces and other services on the bases used by them. ‘‘A total of 57,800 sorties have been generated from Pakistan’s airspace’’.Pakistan Navy has also provided landing facility to the coalition warships at Pasni, west of Karachi on the Arabian Sea coastline, while ‘‘curtailing’’ its own operations and training programmes in order to accommodate and facilitate these naval forces. ‘‘The naval operations in Pasni were the largest operations in size, duration and depth that the US marine corps has conducted since the Korean war,’’ the daily said.The US Central Command report also ‘‘estimated a loss of over $10 billion since October 2001 to Pakistan due to its support to operation enduring freedom,’’ being carried out in Afghanistan.According to the newspaper, Pakistan receives almost US $100 million on account of logistic support it has been providing to the US troops in the war against terrorism.The Pakistani regime has also been charging ‘‘normalbilling’’ of fuel, water and communication, besides use of airbases and storage offered to the US troops along with communication, transport, training, repairs and maintenance services, it said.In early 2002, the US and Pakistan had signed an Acquisition And Cross Servicing Agreement (ACSA) to facilitate reciprocal provision of logistics support between the two armed forces. This was to be used primarily during joint exercises, training, deployment, operations or other cooperative efforts.With the US-led war against Al Qaeda and Taliban going on in the tribal areas where Pakistani forces have joined the US troops to carry out operations in Waziristan, Miran Shah and Wana areas, the Pakistani regime has apprehended over 550 most wanted men including top figures like Khalid Sheikh Muhammad, Abu Zubaida and Ramzi Bin al-Shibha, and handed them over to the US.
