Top US and UK diplomats lobbied hard on Friday to secure support from Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) for the resumption of supplies to Nato troops in Afghanistan. But the opposition party refused to budge from its stance.
“Our reservations with regards to the recommendations of the Parliamentary Committee on National Security (PCNS) are still there which we have conveyed to the visiting diplomats,” Chaudhry Nisar Ali Kahn told a press conference. “We have told the US Ambassador to Pakistan Cameron Munter that continued drone attacks would further affect people to people contacts with the US,” he said.
Nisar added that his party had reservations regarding three clauses of the PCNS that include the presence of foreign intelligence operatives and private security contractors in the country, and parliament’s permission to allow a foreign power for setting up military bases. “Would any sovereign country allow another country to have a military base on its land?” he questioned. “We will never endorse these three clauses at any cost.”
Nisar did not spell out the party’s policy regarding the resumption of Nato supplies. “Five clauses of the resolution are good for the country and should be implemented, whereas the international community is concerned about one clause; the reopening of Nato supply routes,” he mentioned. He said the blockade and resumption of supply lines was the government’s decision.
He reiterated that PML-N had no objection to the clauses that demand an end to drone strikes inside Pakistan.
Published in The Express Tribune, March 31st, 2012.
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