Saudi-Iran tensions: Pakistan must not take sides, says Khursheed Shah

Opposition leader demands briefing in parliament

SUKKUR:

Opposition leader in the National Assembly Khursheed Shah has said Pakistan should avoid taking sides amidst the brewing tensions between Saudi Arabia and Iran.

“Iran is our neighbour while Pakistan enjoys brotherly relations with Saudi Arabia,” he said while talking to the media in Sukkur on Friday night. “Therefore, Pakistan should move to mediate between the two sides and defuse tensions.”



Shah also called upon Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to take parliament into confidence over his recent meeting with his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi, the Pathankot air base attack and the simmering tensions between Riyadh and Tehran.



The opposition leader said the parliament represented 200 million Pakistanis and the PM should clear all things before it on Monday. He assured the premier of the opposition and other political parties’ support on all issues.

Talking about Sindh government’s reservations on Rangers policing powers, he said the interior minister had neither contacted the Sindh chief minister nor the provincial government to address their reservations. He added the prime minister’s team was creating problems for him.

Replying to a question about Dr Asim Hussain, who is on trial for allegedly facilitating terrorists, Shah said if anything happened to the former federal minister then those who arrested them would be held responsible.

While talking about the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, the veteran politician said the Pakistan Peoples Party would support the smaller provinces.

He urged the government to implement the multibillion-dollar project without politicising it.



Referring to various projects in Punjab, he said the federal government was ever-ready to provide guarantees for its projects, but not ready to guarantee the projects of other provinces.

Commenting about the terrorist group of Da’ish, the opposition leader said there was nothing new in its emergence in Pakistan.

He termed it a “new edition of old terrorist organisations”.


Published in The Express Tribune, January 10^th, 2016.