Rebuking Uncle Sam: Senators demand APC to review ties with US

Opposition groups barring MQM boycott Senate session for a third day.

ISLAMABAD:

Members of the Senate on Monday called for another multiparty conference in the wake of Friday’s US drone strike that killed the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) chief Hakimullah Mehsud.

The senators, representing the treasury benches, proposed a meeting of all political parties to review the country’s relations with the United States, which is continuing its controversial drone programme, despite vehement opposition from Pakistan.

“[Once] we review our relations with the US, I assure you that 80 per cent of terrorism in Pakistan would end immediately,” Senator Maulana Abdul Ghafoor Haideri from Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) told the Senate.

The opposition save MQM boycotted the upper house for the third successive day.

Also, Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan did not take his statistics back nor did he apologise to the house for his allegedly rude behaviour.



Inviting the opposition to take part in the debate and discussion on the post-drone strike situation, the JUI-F senator demanded that the Senate should pass a unanimous resolution against the latest drone attack which has derailed the process of peace talks with the Taliban.

The APC, according to Haideri, will also decide on whether or not to block Nato supply lines. “It is time that we take bold and daring decisions,” the senator said. “Peace cannot be achieved under drone attacks.”

He called upon the government to run a worldwide diplomatic campaign against drone attacks besides taking up the issue at the United Nations. “The US has told you that it cannot be your friend,” Haideri told the house.

The JUI-F lawmaker considered the timing of the attack a deliberate means to sabotage Pakistan’s peace efforts.

His party colleague, Senator Hafiz Hamdullah, urged the government to find out those who would have informed the US about the whereabouts of TTP chief Hakimullah Mehsud on the basis of which the US drone carried out the attack.

While calling for the APC, Senator Hamdullah advised the government to be wary of the “internal and external forces” that were conspiring to keep Pakistan in the state of turmoil and war.

He recalled that when Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif spoke of establishing good relations with India there was an escalation of tensions at the Line of Control (LoC) between India and Pakistan. Similarly, he said, the terrorist attack on a church in Peshawar came just before the prime minister’s visit to the UN General Assembly.

“All these are indicators that certain elements inside and outside did not want peace in Pakistan,” said Hamdullah.

Senators Syed Zafar Ali Shah from Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and Abbas Khan Afridi supported the JUI-F senators in their demand for the APC.

The Senate unanimously approved a resolution asking the federal government to take necessary steps to eradicate child labour from the country.

“No proper legislation exists in Pakistan to check the menace of child labour that is destroying our next generation,” said MQM Senator Mashhadi.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 5^th, 2013.