Across the border: What about Pakistan’s share, asks MNA Khursheed Shah

SUKKUR:

We are not concerned with a nuclear agreement between India and the US, said MNA Khursheed Shah while talking to the media in Sukkur on Sunday night. “What we find disturbing, however, is the double standards of the US.” He added that Pakistan and the US had a good relationship but there were times the US did not hold up to their end of the bargain. He gave examples how Pakistan had helped the Americans in fighting the war in Afghanistan for more than 30 years.

He claimed that the US must remember that Pakistan helped accommodate more than four million Afghan refugees and as a result was dealing with terrorism in the country. The opposition leader urged the Pakistani government to stop showing its weak points to the US.

“Our government should start thinking about revisiting its foreign policy,” he said. “We do not have a foreign minister. We just have two advisors on foreign affairs who never agree with each other.”

While talking about Saturday’s country-wide blackout, he said that he had indicated that this could happen around two weeks ago when no one was paying any heed to the shortage of furnace oil.

“It is incorrect to say that there was no electricity due to certain grid stations tripping,” he said. “It was due to a shortage of furnace oil. Around 90 per cent of electricity is generated through furnace oil.”

Published in The Express Tribune, January 27^th, 2015.