Foreign policy: Senators concerned over ‘movement of non-state actors to Syria’

Senator Babar calls for snapping alleged links with any Afghan insurgents.

ISLAMABAD:

Members of the upper house of parliament on Friday called for an end to confusion in Pakistan’s relation with its neighbouring countries as they expressed concern over the alleged movement of non-state actors from Pakistan to Syria.

Speaking on a motion moved by PPP Senator Raza Rabbani, Senator Farhatullah Babar called for ending random multiplicity in foreign policy formulation and stressed the need for retrieving the ground lost by the civilians to the security establishment over the past decades.

“A serious rethink of policy formulation is called for in the light of realities emerging as a result of political transition taking place in Pakistan’s neighbourhood in the last one year including China, Iran and now in Afghanistan and India,” he said.

Referring to the Article 40 of the Constitution, he said it laid the basis for foreign policy formulation. “If we want to adhere to it, we must break alleged links with any Afghan insurgents and stop the ability of Afghan fighters to seek refuge in Pakistan,” he said.



He said a stable and democratic civilian government leading the foreign policy formulation as against the security establishment leading it without being accountable would be welcomed by all parties.

“Although the government has stated umpteen times that Pakistan will not take sides in the Syrian civil war and troops and weapons will not be sent to the aid of rebels, there were lingering suspicions that non-state actors are being encouraged to move to Syria and the Middle East with weapons,” he said.

Pointing out a recent interview of the Finance Minister Ishaq Dar, who stated that if people went to Bahrain and Syria then it should be seen as an employee-employer relationship and had nothing to do with the government.

He warned that by taking the employee-employer relationship to this extent, Pakistan would be sucked into another Afghanistan, this time in the Middle East.

Senator Afrasiab Khattak said the geo-political realities were changing and Pakistan’s relations with all its neighbours had declined.

He claimed that there were militants, who had travelled to Syria, adding that these events were damaging the image of Pakistan and belittling our as no more than mercenaries.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 19^th, 2014.