Restoration of Nato supplies: Jamaat-i-Islami demands agreement be made public

Urges opposition parties to chalk out a joint line of action.

LAHORE:

Demanding that the government make public the draft agreement on restoration of Nato supplies, Jamaat-i-Islami Amir Syed Munawar Hasan on Thursday said the government should arrange a consultation on the matter at national level.

In a press statement, Hasan warned the rulers that an unfair agreement on the restoration of Nato supplies would prove disastrous for the future of the country and the nation.

“The rulers seem to have agreed to sell the country’s independence and sovereignty for a few dollars,” he said.

Hasan said the rulers ‘on their way out’ should not make decisions about sensitive national security issues of a long-term nature. The rulers had already lost the public confidence, he said, adding that the nation would not allow the Nato supplies through its roads nor accept an agreement for safe passage for the supplies. The JI amir urged leaders of all opposition parties to chalk out a joint line of action against the government.

He said millions of people had joined the Difa-i-Pakistan Council rallies to warn the rulers against such decisions.

Calling the rulers corrupt and self-centred, Hasan said, they were not listening to their people and were going against them, instead.

“The rulers have become puppets in the hands of America. They have reached a point of no return,” he said.

Hasan said that America was playing a double game by using Pakistanis rulers to strengthen its hold in the region and, on the other hand, facilitating terrorist activities in the country through Indian agents from across the Afghan border to create misunderstandings between Pakistan and Afghanistan. He said the recurring attacks on Pakistan military posts on the Pak- Afghan border were made with the patronage of American and Nato forces. He claimed that there was solid evidence of Indian and Israeli involvement in Balochistan. He said Indian businesses were getting contracts for development in Afghanistan because the United States wanted India to become a mini super power.

JI secretary general and Difa-i-Pakistan Council steering committee Chairman Liaqat Baloch said that the government’s decision to restore Nato supplies was unacceptable and that the American rulers had used tactics for the restoration of Nato supplies.

“The people are wondering why military leaders yielded to Washington’s pressure?” he said.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 27^th, 2012.