WASHINGTON, Dec 7 (APP): Pakistan is looking forward to working
closely with the new administration amid indications that incoming US President Donald Trump intends to be fully engaged in South Asia to advance peace and security and help resolve contentious issues between Pakistan and India, including the Kashmir dispute.

Special Assistant to the Prime Minister, Syed Tariq Fatemi, is in
Washington to have interaction with the current US administration and reach out to officials who are likely to join the new administration of President-elect Donald Trump.

Trump has announced nominees for 10 Cabinet jobs, subject to Senate
confirmation, but there still remain 10 slots that await nomination, including the most prominent post of Secretary of State.

Those who have been nominated, or likely to be officially announced
include retired General James Mattis for the post of Defense Secretary, Senator Mike Pompeo, Central Intelligence Agency, Jeff Sessions for Attorney General and Steve Munichin, for the Treasury.

Nominations for Transportation, Health and Human Services, Commerce, Education, Housing and Urban Development have also been announced.

In his interaction with the leading US print and electronic media, Mr.
Fatemi underscored that Pakistan was looking forward to working closely with the new US Administration and wanted the bilateral relations to be further strengthened in future.

Once President-elect Donald Trump assumes his office, Pakistan would
look forward to meaningful engagement with USA to further improve bilateral relations with the US both in the context of regional and international issues.

Mr. Fatemi stressed that Pakistan could play a significant role in
promoting peace and stability not only in Afghanistan, but to the entire region. Pakistan has confluence of interests with USA and there was a solid track record of US and Pakistan working together over 07 decades to promote regional peace and stability.

The PM’s Special Assistant also apprised the media-persons of
Pakistan’s unflinching commitment to putting an end to terrorism and militancy. Pakistan has lost about 5,000 soldiers in counterterrorism campaign. Pakistan has deputed more than 200,000 troops in its Northern Areas and along the Pak-Afghan border in this effort.

Mr. Fatemi also underlined the need for a sustained dialogue process
between Pakistan and India to resolve their long-standing differences including issue of Kashmir. In an interview with NBC News this week, Vice President-elect Mike Pence said that Mr. Trump intends to be fully engaged with both Pakistan and India to promote peace in the region.

He also suggested that Mr. Trump could play a role in resolving world’s contentious disputes, such as Kashmir.

The PM’s Special Assistant told the US media people about the
widespread and homegrown uprising in Indian Occupied Kashmir which the Indian Government was trying to suppress by force and with massive human rights violations.

Over 16,000 Kashmiris have been injured and approx. 600 blinded by using special kind of guns known as Pellet Guns, aimed at damaging the eye sight of innocent Kashmiris. In addition, the number of ceasefire violations has increased during recent months. Moreover, these violations have targeted innocent civilians, which amount to a war crime.

Mr. Fatemi emphasized that Pakistan had made remarkable progress over the last 03 years. Since the current Government assumed power in June 2013, a new chapter began in Pak-US relations. The Strategic dialogue between the two countries was resumed and it’s agenda broadened.

He said Pakistan was an important democratic country in South Asia and had vital stake in the region and its stability and economic development.

Mr. Fatemi also gave a detailed account of the progress Pakistan has
made after Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif Government assumed power.

He said that all state institutions were working in sync with each other in the country.

He said Pakistan would be forthcoming in cooperating with new
Administration in the US, in achieving peace in Afghanistan and improving Pakistan-India relationship for the sake of peace in the region.

WASHINGTON, Dec.6(APP): Deputy Secretary of State Antony Blinken has appreciated efforts made by Pakistan to promote peace and stability in South Asia, while expressing concern over the increasing tension at Line of Control.

The US officials made these remarks during a meeting with Syed Tariq
Fatemi, the Special Assistant to the Prime Minister at the US State Department. Pakistan’s Ambassador to the United States, Jalil Abbas Jilani was also present at the meeting.

The meeting noted that Pakistan’s participation in the Heart of Asia
Conference held in India on December 4, and its earlier pledge at the Brussels Conference to provide $500 million for development projects in Afghanistan were concrete and positive steps reflecting Pakistan’s commitment to peace and prosperity of its western neighbour.

The Deputy Secretary of State also praised the generosity of Pakistan in hosting millions of Afghan refugees for over four decades and expressed appreciation on the recent decision to extend the deadline for the repatriation of these refugees.

During the meeting, the regional situation also came under discussion,
including the escalation across the Line of Control and the Working Boundary. Mr. Fatemi briefed the Deputy Secretary on the frequency of ceasefire violations by India in recent weeks with particular reference to targeting of civilians across the LoC.

He said that the massive and systematic human rights violations in the
Occupied Kashmir were resulting in hundreds of casualties and debilitating injuries to the civilians including women and children.

While expressing concern on the increasing escalation at the LoC, Deputy Secretary Blinken reiterated the US position on the need for reducing tension in South Asia and promoting closer cooperation and dialogue between the two largest countries of the region.

The meeting reviewed the bilateral relations between Pakistan and the
United States, with two sides expressing satisfaction on several achievements in areas of peace and security, counter terrorism, defense and economic cooperation.

It was agreed that Pakistan-US relationship was important to regional as well as global peace and security and should continue to be strengthened under the next Administration.

Mr. Fatemi conveyed the message of goodwill from Prime Minister Nawaz
Sharif and the people of Pakistan on the recently held elections in the US. He expressed the hope that after the completion of ongoing transition process, the two sides would resume their regular engagement on the bilateral track.

The Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Foreign Affairs is in Washington on the first high level visit from Pakistan after the November elections in the United States.

WASHINGTON, Dec.6(APP): Senior officials at the US Defense
Department, or Pentagon, have been accused of covering up a study that detailed $125 billion of “administrative waste”,fearing it might be used by the Congress to slash defense budget, the Washington Post reported.

Picked up by many other news outlets, including Fox News, the report
revealed that the study was conducted in January, 2015 by the advisory Defense Business Board, (DBB), which called for a series of reforms that could have saved the department the staggering expenses over the next five years.

The study had been requested by the Pentagon officials to help induce
efficiency in its back-office bureaucracy to save funds that could have been invested in combat power. But when the study exposed wasteful spending that far exceeded the expectation, officials moved quickly to suppress it, fearing that might lead to cut in their budget.

According to the Fox News, the Pentagon even withdrew a report from a Pentagon website. The Pentagon had been complaining about lack of funds over the years.

Robert Stein, the former DBB Chairman, told the Post that the Pentagon had always complained that they were short of money and we proposed the way to save a “ton of money”. But, according to Deputy Defense Secretary Robert Work, who had originally ordered the study, the plan drawn out by DBB was “unrealistic” and overstated the expenses.

In a statement issued to Fox News, Pentagon spokesman Peter Cook echoed the stance of the Deputy Defense Secretary, saying that the report had “limited value” and “lacked specific, actionable recommendations appropriate to the department”.

According to the report, as quoted by the Washington Post story, the
study had identified a “clear path” for the Pentagon to save $125 billion over five years, by streamlining bureaucracy through attrition and early retirement, curtailing high-priced contractors, and bringing efficiency through better use of information technology. There was no recommendation to lay off civil servants or reducing military personnel.

“Based on reams of personnel and cost data, their report revealed for
the first time that the Pentagon was spending almost a quarter of its $580 billion budget on overhead and core business operations such as accounting, human resources, logistics and property management,” the story claimed.

According to the DBB data, the Defense Department was paying an
extremely high amount to some 1,014,000 contractors, civilians and uniformed personal to fill back-office jobs to support 1.3 million troops on active duty.

The study may resonate with President-elect Donald Trump who has
promised a major military buildup by “eliminating government waste and budget gimmicks”.

Some Pentagon leaders, however, were worried that exposing such a
staggering amount as being wasted, would have gone contrary to their public assertions they had been making for years about the lack of funds. They feared that instead of providing more money, the Congress and the White House might have decided to cut deeper.