Negotiate Nato supply resumption to end drone strikes: Mushahid

Draft of Mushahid’s proposal forwarded to Parliamentary Committee on National Security for review.

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Muslim League – Quaid (PML – Q) leader Mushahid Hussain Syed on Friday proposed to a joint session of the parliament that resumption of Nato supply routes should be negotiated with the United States to end drone attacks in Pakistan.

The draft of Mushahid’s proposal has been forwarded to the Parliamentary Committee on National Security for review. The reviewed draft will be presented before the joint session of the parliament on April 5.

Mushahid also said that weapons should not be allowed to be transported to Nato and US troops stationed in Afghanistan.

The members of parliament supported Mushahid’s proposal.

Another session of the parliament will be held tomorrow (Saturday) at 10am.

Release Bin Laden’s family, urges Mushahid Hussain

Mushahid insists that Pakistan send bin Laden’s younger wife Amal al Sadeh and their four kids back home to Yemen in a “show of solidarity with the Muslim Ummah”.

Speaking at the Joint Session of the Parliament on Friday, Hussain pleaded bin Laden’s family’s innocence and urged the government consider the request by the Yemeni foreign minister.

“Bin laden’s family members should be handed over to their dear ones,” he said.

Sadeh along with bin Laden’s two other wives from Saudi Arabia and an undisclosed number of children were among the 16 people detained by Pakistani authorities in the fallout of the May 2nd raid on the al Qaeda leader’s Abbottabad compound.

Yemen has urged Pakistan to return Sadeh and her four children to her home country, saying they were not guilty of any crime.

Foreign policy recommendations

Mushahid Hussain also urged the Government to reformulate its foreign policy according to changing political scenarios in South Asia.

Speaking on Pakistan’s relationship with the United States, he said that we should stand by our neighbours when “Washington is making its mind to give Iran a tough time.” He added that the US was also preparing India against China by facilitating it with all kinds of arms.

In the light of these developments, Hussain observed that the recommendations laid out by the report of the Parliamentary Committee on National Security (PCNS) were comprehensive.

“It (report) gives a clear-cut road map on key issues with the US,” he said. Hussain was reserved, however, regarding certain recommendations such as the presence of CIA operators, and asked they be amended.

Regarding the resumption of Nato supplies through Pakistan, he suggested disallowing the transfer of weapons as long as drone strikes continue, while allowing other items to pass through.

Other attendees were equally vociferous in a session dominated by foreign policy discussion vis-à-vis the US and the war on terror.

Abdul Malik Wazir, an MNA from Fata, demanded the permanent closure of all Nato supplies arguing that it is impossible to check each and every consignment.

Meanwhile, Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Senator Mudassir Sehar Kamran demanded that infrastructure damages in Pakistan due to war on terror must be compensated.

PPP MNA Syed Akhonzada Chitan maintained that the ceasing of drone attacks will be a barometer for the strength of Pakistan’s foreign policy while fellow party member and Senator Saeed Ghani regretted that some parliamentarians were backtracking after signing the recommendations prepared by the PCNS.

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