NATO supplies: ‘Imran’s policies would isolate Pakistan’

Information minister says NATO trucks taking food, not guns, to Afghanistan.

LAHORE:

PTI Chairman Imran Khan’s demand to block the NATO supply line to Afghanistan through Pakistan is unrealistic and would not serve the country well, Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Pervaiz Rashid has said.

Khan appears to be bent on ruining Pakistan’s ties with foreign countries, the minister said, according to a government press release issued on Sunday. “Pakistan cannot afford the politics of isolation, as it needs friends not foes in today’s world,” he said, speaking to reporters at the 4th International Literary and Cultural Conference here at the Alhamra.



The PTI led a major protest against drone strikes in Peshawar on Saturday and announced that it would block NATO trucks headed for the border over the weekend.

Rashid said that the PML-N government also wanted an end to US drone strikes in Pakistan and to eliminate terrorists from the country, but it could not pursue a foreign policy which would exclude Pakistan from the global village.

He said any attempt by the PTI government in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa to block NATO supplies to Afghanistan would be detrimental to regional ties. “The NATO containers transport food items for our Afghan brethren, not arms. Pakistanis have close ties with the people of Afghanistan,” he said.

Rashid said Khan’s “politics of isolation” would hurt Pakistan’s relations with its neighbours. All the Central Asian countries, including Afghanistan, have good relations with NATO countries, he said. Even Iran had improved its ties with the United States by signing an agreement to temporarily freeze nuclear enrichment in exchange for a loosening of sanctions. “Stalled diplomatic relations with Afghanistan would only benefit Pakistan’s foes,” he added.

The minister also accused the PTI of playing up his anti-drone stance. He said that no NATO supplies were run on Saturdays and Sundays, so he did not see what the PTI hoped to block on the weekend. “It seems that the PTI leader has always preferred to hold protest rallies on weekends,” he added.

Rashid said that Khan wanted talks with the Taliban but to take his sword out for the United States. To a question, he said that no representative from the KP government had addressed the rally in Peshawar on Saturday, which raised the question of who the PTI was representing and serving.

He also questioned why, in the FIR lodged against a recent drone attack, no one had been mentioned as the accused. He wondered whether Khan knew who was conducting drone strikes. He said the PML-N government supported peace and rejected the politics of hatred, intolerance and isolation. “Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had established himself as a great leader when Imran Khan was still frolicking on cricket fields,” he said.

Rashid said that the process of initiating talks with the Taliban had stalled and would be restarted soon. He said the government wanted to resolve the issues of terrorism and drone attacks through talks.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 25^th, 2013.