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NATO’s presence in Pakistan as a relief group creating doubt, says Rabbani

Staff Report

LAHORE: The presence of NATO forces in Pakistan as a relief group is creating doubts amongst the people because the government did not take them into confidence in this regard, said Mian Raza Rabbani, Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) parliamentary leader in the Senate, while addressing a press conference on Tuesday.

Flanked by Qasim Zia, Naveed Chaudhry and Farooq Naik, Rabbani said that NATO had always worked for peace and never as a relief force anywhere in the world. “What makes NATO’s presence in Pakistan doubtful is the modus operandi for calling it into the earthquake-hit areas,” added Rabbani. He said the government did not take the cabinet or parliament into confidence and called in NATO secretly. “When people said Pakistan needed Berlin-type airlift, a NATO official said that there was a big difference between Germany and Pakistan and his statements reflect a philosophy that white men are more precious than Asian men,” he said.

Rabbani said that transparency in fund utilisation was currently the most important issue and the PPP had suggested that all funds should be deposited in a single account maintained at the State Bank of Pakistan, with an access to the account’s details to every Pakistani. “The PPP also proposed a bipartisan parliamentary committee be formed to ensure transparent distribution of funds. It is deplorable that the government did not tell the people about the volume of funds collected till date,” Rabbani said. He said that the government should also involve victims in the reconstruction process and a parliamentary committee should supervise it.

He said the PPP had always supported the privatisation process but it never wanted privatisation of strategic assets such as the Karachi Electric Supply Corporation (KESC) and Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited (PTCL). He said that the government not only privatised them but also sold them to foreign companies, posing a great threat to Pakistan. He said that the foreign companies, which bought the KESC and PTCL, cancelled the sale deeds and later both were sold to other foreign buyers, causing a loss to the government. The prime minister and privatisation minister should resign over the loss, he added.

“Now the government wants to sell Pakistan Steel Mills despite that it has been yielding profits for the last two years, after paying off its liabilities, and General Qayyum should be congratulated for it,” Rabbani said. He said that its buyers would not only get the mills but also their thousands of acres of land which stretched from one side of Karachi to Port Qasim on the other.

“The government did not do any favour to Mian Nawaz Sharif by issuing him his passport because it was his basic civic right,” said PPP parliamentary leader. He said Sheikh Rasheed’s statement indicated that Nawaz Sharif would be the first person unable to visit Pakistan on a Pakistani passport.

He said the PPP did not expect any goodwill gesture from the government and the party could discuss transparent elections, free elections commission and rule of civil forces with the government.

Had Benazir Bhutto returned after the earthquake, military rulers would have propagated that she came to exploit the disaster in Pakistan, Rabbani said.

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