Aitzaz Ahsan: ‘We can’t afford war with US’

LAHORE:

Pakistan cannot afford a war with the United States, but it cannot sit silent in the face of American threats either, said Chaudhry Aitzaz Ahsan, a prominent member of the Pakistan Peoples Party and former president of the Supreme Court Bar Association, on Thursday.

Talking to reporters at the Lahore High Court after a court appearance, Ahsan said that he hoped that the all parties conference being called by the government would come up with a good plan on how to respond to US accusations that Pakistan is giving cover support to groups opposed to the American presence in Afghanistan. Pakistan is not in a position to break ties with the US, he said.

He said that public criticism of the armed forces over the operation by US forces to kill Osama Bin Laden in Abbottabad was justified.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 30^th, 2011.