Dawn – Nawaz links reopening of Nato routes to expulsion of US agents

Ali Hazrat Bacha

Peshawar, 7 April 2012. Pakistan Muslim League-N chief Nawaz Sharif said here on Friday that the government would have to get the country cleared of American agents (contractors) and drone attacks stopped in exchange for reopening routes for Nato supplies.

He was addressing a meeting at which PML-Q’s provincial president Engineer Amir Muqam joined his party and announced the merger of his faction into the PML-N.

Mr Sharif said the government would have to stop allowing the use of bases in the country by foreign troops. Besides Nato trucks should be used only to carry foodstuff through Pakistan.

“The Parliamentary Committee on National Security is already working on the issue and my party has expressed its stance,” he said, adding that the PML-N would not support reopening of the Nato supply unless these conditions were met.

He urged the United States to use its influence to get the Kashmir issue resolved as lives of innocent people in the occupied territory could be saved.

He condemned the American announcement of a bounty on Hafiz Saeed’s head and said the US-Pakistan relations could not improve unless the US stopped pursuing double standards.

“The meetings of the Parliamentary Committee on National Security will be a futile exercise if the US did not change its policy towards Pakistan,” he said.

He said the government would have to change its foreign policy and stop compromising on national security and sovereignty.

Otherwise, development and peace in the country would remain only a dream.

He accused the government of indulging in corruption and destroying national institutions like PIA and Pakistan Railways.

Because of its faulty policies, he said, the energy crisis was worsening by the day.

Criticising the role of military dictators, he said, they tried to divide political parties, encouraged non-party elections and promoted sectarianism. Referring to the government’s performance during the past four years, he said it failed to resolve the energy crisis, curb terrorism and sectarianism, steer the country out of financial crisis and focused only on accumulating wealth.

“The country would not have faced the financial crisis and law and order problem if the PML-N government had not been removed in 1997 when it was in a position to complete the planned motorways from Peshawar to Afghanistan and Central Asian countries,” he said.

Commenting on remarks made by President Asif Ali Zardari, he said he would not use the same language because the nation was the better judge.

“Everyone knows that the Musharraf government did not allow members of my family to attend the funeral of my father in Lahore,” he said.

He asked the government to end corruption, take up welfare projects and his party would support it in the best interests of the nation.

PML-N leaders Iqbal Zafar Jhagra, Pir Sabir Shah, Sardar Mehtab Ahmed Abbasi, Rehmat Salam Khattak and Farid Toofan were present on the occasion.

http://dawn.com/2012/04/07/nawaz-links-reopening-of-nato-routes-to-expulsion-of-us-agents/

Dawn – Taliban warn Pakistan lawmakers over Nato supplies

Dera Ismail Khan, 26 March 2012. The Taliban on Sunday threatened to attack Pakistani lawmakers and their families if they support allowing Nato to resume shipping supplies through the country to troops in neighbouring Afghanistan.

Pakistan closed its Afghan border crossings to Nato in November in retaliation for American airstrikes that accidentally killed 24 Pakistani soldiers. Pakistan’s parliament is scheduled to begin debate Monday on a revised relationship with the US that could lead to the border being reopened.

Pakistani Taliban spokesman Ahsanullah Ahsan accused Pakistani officials of acting like slaves for the US and said allowing Nato supplies to resume would be “shameful and unacceptable.”

“These parliamentarians must know that in such case, none of them will be safe in their homes,” Ahsan told The Associated Press. “We will start attacking all the parliamentarians and their families.”

Ahsan also said militants would “publicly slaughter” drivers ferrying Nato supplies.

The US is eager to get the supplies moving again because it has had to spend much more money shipping goods by an alternative route that runs through Central Asia.

The supply line through Pakistan will also be key to trucking out equipment as the US seeks to withdraw most of its combat forces from Afghanistan by the end of 2014.

Pakistan would also benefit from patching up relations because it needs US assistance to help keep its struggling economy afloat. The US has given Pakistan billions of dollars in aid since 2001 to enlist its support in fighting Islamist militants, but the relationship has been plagued by mistrust.

A Pakistani parliamentary commission tasked with proposing new guidelines for the relationship between the two countries last week demanded an end to American drone attacks and an apology for the airstrikes that killed Pakistani troops.

The commission also recommended that the Pakistani government charge Nato more for shipments through the country if it allows them to resume. The parliament is scheduled to begin debate on these points Monday.

Washington has expressed regret for the border incident but avoided a formal apology. US officials were reportedly preparing to apologize last month but had to postpone the plan after US soldiers burned copies of the Quran in Afghanistan.

President Barack Obama apologized for that, bring criticism from political opponents.

High-level meetings between the two countries were mostly put on hold following the airstrikes, but lately they have started to pick up.

On Sunday, Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari met with Marc Grossman, the US special representative for Pakistan and Afghanistan, on the sidelines of a conference in Dushanbe, Tajikistan, the US said.

Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani is scheduled to meet Obama during a meeting in Seoul, South Korea, on Tuesday.

The Pakistani army, and to a lesser extent the civilian government, will ultimately decide whether to restore ties with the US, but parliament could influence the decision.

Analysts say placing the issue before lawmakers is an attempt to give the government and the army some political cover, so they can claim support of the country before quietly reopening the supply route.

Opposition lawmakers have indicated they may not back the proposed new terms with the US.

“If the government wants the parliament to provide guidance on certain issues and situations, then we are ready to, but the government has to convince us, because its track record regarding two previous resolutions proved to be very bad,” Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, the leader of the opposition in parliament, said Saturday.

Parliament passed a resolution last May recommending Pakistan cut off Nato supplies if the US didn’t stop drone strikes in the country. The missile attacks continued, as did the Nato supplies.

The drone strikes are unpopular among Pakistanis and have long been publicly opposed by the Pakistani army and government as a violation of the country’s sovereignty. They also maintain that the attacks fan support for militancy even as they kill insurgents.

The issue is muddied by the fact that in private, the army has approved at least some of the strikes and provided intelligence on them, raising questions over whether they technically violate the sovereignty of the country. American officials rarely talk about the program in public.

http://www.dawn.com/2012/03/26/taliban-warn-pakistan-lawmakers-over-nato-supplies.html