Submits a calling attention notice in the Senate due to meet on Monday. PHOTO: FILE
ISLAMABAD:
A key opposition party has sought an explanation from the government over its policy shift on the civil war in Syria.
The Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) has submitted a calling attention notice in the Senate, asking the government to explain the ‘shift in the policy on the civil war in Syria in the wake of last week’s high-profile visit of a foreign dignitary from a Middle Eastern country and its impact on Pakistan’s national security and relations with other countries in the region”.
The party has asked Prime Minister’s Adviser on National Security and Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz to clarify the government’s position on the issue in the Senate in its session on Monday.
PPP Senator Farhatullah Babar has asked the PM’s adviser to take the upper house into confidence on this ‘matter of great public importance’ as there seemed a sudden, unexplained and a major departure from the known and stated position of Pakistan on this issue.
Babar said it was significant that after talks between the visiting dignitary and PM Nawaz, the two countries called for ‘the formation of a transitional governing body with full executive powers enabling it to take charge of the affairs of the country’, clearly meaning ‘regime change’ in Syria which would have profound implications for Pakistan’s relations with countries of Middle East particularly Iran.
“Until now, Islamabad refused to take sides and kept a delicate balance in its ties with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and Iran. That balance seems to have been upset,” he said.
He said this shift in policy might drag Pakistan into uncharted waters without tangible gains that should best be avoided.
He said the warning by Iran’s interior minister to send troops into Pakistan to secure the release of kidnapped border guards could be seen as Iran’s discomfort over the shift in our policy.
Published in The Express Tribune, February 23rd, 2014.
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