ISLAMABAD, Jan 10: The US government has proposed to hold joint military exercises with Pakistan next month that would involve as many as 1500 US Marines, Dawn has learnt through reliable sources.

The US request for the joint military exercises was communicated to the Pakistan military officials last month, informed defence sources told Dawn. The date proposed for what could be the largest to date wargames between the two countries is Feb 22.

The proposed exercises would involve all three services, army, air force and navy, the sources said. “The exercises would basically involve onshore landing supported by air and ground forces,” is how a senior official in the know of the proposal put it.

Pakistan has yet to give the green light for the unprecedented tri-services joint military exercises.

Talking to Dawn, ISPR Chief Major-Gen Rashid Qureshi said: “We have an ongoing programme of military cooperation with the United States under which a series of joint exercises are to be held but there are no army exercises with the US forces scheduled in the month of February.”

When asked if he was aware that a recent request for joint military exercises with 1500 US Marines had been made by the United States, he replied in the negative.

Responding to the same question, a US embassy spokesman in Islamabad said that after the Sept 11, the United States and Pakistan had resumed an active programme of joint military exercises. There was no outright denial by him of US having proposed the military exercises for the next month.

When questioned about dates, scale and duration of the proposed exercises the US embassy spokesman said: “These are all topics of ongoing discussions at the current time.” He added: “The US and Pakistan governments are continuing to plan several future exercises between the two militaries.”

Another Islamabad-based US diplomat said that he was aware that “there is something coming up in a relatively mid future.” His hunch was that the exercises would mainly involve naval ships.

Meanwhile, Pakistan observers and analysts remain intrigued by the time chosen for the proposed massive exercises by the US. “Around this time either a war would be raging against Iraq or would be about to start,” remarked one Islamabad-based analyst, questioning the objective of 1500 US Marines in the North Arabian Sea at a critical and sensitive time for Pakistan.

“These exercises would signal that Pakistan is on board and the US has its tacit support at a time when Pakistan government would be under tremendous domestic pressure,” warned a political observer.

The last Pakistan-US joint military exercises were held in mid-October 2002 and they lasted two weeks. These were small-scale ‘company-level’ exercises in which around 100 to 150 US military personnel had participated.