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Kasuri says Pakistan can’t afford isolation

By Irfan Ghauri and Naveed Siddiqui

ISLAMABAD: Chairman Muhammadmian Soomro prorogued the Senate’s 39th session on Wednesday after Foreign Minister Khurshid Mehmood Kasuri concluded the two-day long debate on foreign policy saying that Pakistan couldn’t afford isolation and disengagement in the comity of nations and that the country’s national interests were kept supreme while framing foreign policy.

Rejecting the opposition members’ call for a review of policy towards the United States, Kasuri insisted that Pakistan had made a foreign policy targeting strong defence, national security and economic stability and apprised the countries concerned of its ‘red lines’. He said the government had to make unpopular decisions at times, but Pakistan’s interests were kept supreme in the process.

He rejected the US intelligence reports that Pakistan had become a haven for Al Qaeda and Taliban militants, but conceded that some terrorist had taken refuge in the country’s areas bordering Afghanistan against which forces were in action. Kasuri criticised US presidential hopefuls for “Pakistan-bashing”. He rejected Tom Tancredo’s call for bombing Muslim holy cities and demanded the presidential candidate be tried for hurting the sentiments of Muslims, as done under the holocaust laws.

Kasuri said Pakistan’s foreign policy did not revolve around the US but was aimed at promoting relations with all countries especially Asian countries, the European Union, China, Russia, Japan and Germany. He said the policy specially focused on improving ties with the US and the EU because 80 percent of Pakistan’s trade was with them. He added that Pakistan had improved relations with its neighbours over the years but faced some problems in enhancing ties with India and Afghanistan.

The foreign minister denied that Pakistan was blindly accepting “each and every thing” coming from the US and said the government was and would continue protecting national interests. He said Islamabad had refused to back US policies on many occasions including a motion in the UN Security Council the invasion of Iraq and another against Iran’s nuclear programme in Vienna.

Kasuri said that nuclear parity would be maintained at all cost in South Asia and asked the US to make a uniform policy towards the states of the region. He urged the international community to address the issues faced by Muslim states to fight terrorism. He said that Pakistan had joined the US-led anti-terror war in its own interest, but would not allow any state to interfere in the country’s internal affairs. He said Pakistan was actively engaged with India through back channel diplomacy to settle the Kashmir conflict and as soon as some agreement was reached it would be presented in the parliament and cabinet for approval.

Leader of the Opposition Raza Rabbani insisted that the foreign policy had been a failure and had isolated Pakistan in the comity of nations. He accused the US of interfering in Pakistan’s internal affairs and pressed the government to review its relations with the US, especially in reference to the war on terror. He said Parliament should be consulted on foreign policy framing and that a democratically elected government and parliament would allow the country to deal effectively with the challenges it was facing. “What we need today is free, fair and transparent elections organised by a neutral government so that their results could be acceptable to all political forces,” he said. He said militancy had increased in the country because of the government’s faulty policies on terrorism, adding that the country’s sovereignty and territorial integrity were at stake. Rabbani said Pakistan had done more in the war against terror than any other nation in the world, but the US still was not satisfied by its sacrifices. “This is unfortunate,” he said. He also criticised the US Congress for linking aid to Islamabad with its performance in the war on terror.

Naeem Hussain Chattha, Liaquat Ali Bangulzai, SM Zafar, Prof Muhammad Ibrahim, Sardar Jamal Khan Leghari, Dr Muhammad Said, Gulshan Saeed, Javed Khan Leghari, Pari Gul Agha and Dr Khalid Mehmood Soomro also participated in the debate.

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