Tasnim Aslam, spokesperson of Pakistan Foreign Office, issued a lengthy rejoinder to the US spy chief's remarks saying Pakistan has done more than any one else in breaking the back of al-Qaeda.
"There is no existence of al-Qaeda in Pakistan, and the group has been marginalised," Pakistan's Interior Minister, Aftab Khan Sherpao, told reporters on Friday after a meeting with the US Assistant Secretary of State Richard Boucher.
Boucher is here to hold talks with President Pervez Musharraf on a host of issues including tensions over allegations that Pakistan has not cracked down hard on Taliban.
"Al-Qaeda is not operating from Pakistan," Sherpao said adding that Islamabad had made it clear several times.
Negroponte, in a testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee, on Thursday had said al-Qaeda was strengthening itself across the Middle East, North Africa and Europe, and the organisation was cultivating stronger operational capabilities and relationships that radiated out of Pakistan.
Washington: Negroponte's assessment reflect unease over Pak's terror fight
The charge by Negroponte suggests US unease over Islamabad's commitment to the battle against terrorism, experts say.
Officials and experts in Washington said Negroponte was not exaggerating when he made the charges.
A day after Negroponte's remarks, US State Department spokesman Sean McCormack acknowledged yesterday that Al-Qeada leaders had "secure hideouts" in Pakistan.
Defense Secretary Robert Gates said he would travel soon to Afghanistan, underlining concerns over Taliban resurgence and clashes with NATO-led forces that last year assumed security in Afghanistan's restive south.
"Absolutely, there is growing American unease and I would certainly enlarge that to say there is a growing international unease with Pakistan" over the battle against terrorism, said Frederic Grare, who is leading a project assessing US and European policies toward Pakistan.
"Traditional assumption" was that Pakistan harboured militant groups, such as the Taliban, to safeguard its regional interest and would "hand over those linked to global terror groups who were a liability."
Musharraf's policy in the tribal areas "is failing," said Peter Brookes, a former deputy US assistant secretary of defense. "I think that Musharraf is with us on Al-Qaeda but I am afraid that Al-Qaeda and other jihadists are also finding sanctuary in that part of the country," he said.
"There is a very strong belief that Osama bin laden and (his deputy) Al-Zawahiri are both in Hindu Kush of Pakistan. They are not in Afghanistan," Brookes said.
