'Asked Karzai to speak to US on Pakistan's Bonn participation'

Gilani says Karzai told him NATO and US had carried out the attack, responded by asking him to speak to US.

KARACHI: Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani said on Wednesday that he had asked Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai to speak to the United States (US) regarding Pakistan’s participation at the Bonn Conference on Afghanistan. The conference is scheduled to be held on December 5.

Speaking to the media at Karachi Expo Centre, Gilani said that he had informed Karzai about Pakistan’s decision to boycott the conference and the Afghan president had said that it was not his country but NATO and the US who had carried out the attack. Gilani said he asked Karzai to speak with the US on Pakistan’s participation at Bonn.

(Read: Bonn conference: How significant is Pakistan’s absence?)

The prime minister also said that Karzai had been informed that Afghan soil was being used against Pakistan.

Karzai had earlier telephoned Gilani to urge him to reconsider a boycott of the Bonn conference over the deadly NATO strike.

Karzai’s deputy spokesman Siamak Herawi had told AFP that Pakistan was an important participant in the conference aimed at bridging peace after 10 years of war against the Taliban, and had expressed hope that they would ultimately attend.