Opposition parties to resist reopening NATO supply lines

Opposition parties to resist reopening NATO supply lines

A meeting took place recently between the main opposition parties of Pakistan. The opposition leaders met together in order to discuss the issue of the NATO supply routes through Pakistan. The discussions that took place in the meeting hinted at rejecting
draft recommendations on foreign policy submitted by a parliamentary panel.

Salim Saifullah Khan of the PML-Q expressed himself in the following manner while talking to The Express Tribune: “The decision either to boycott the proceedings during the voting or voting against the resolution will be taken during a meeting scheduled
for Monday. It is my hunch that the opposition cannot converge [with the government] over this issue. What guarantee is there that the government will implement the parliamentary recommendations? If the government gets the recommendations approved due to its
numerical strength, it would be a policy of the government and not a collective stand of Parliament.”

The NATO forces were responsible for carrying out an air strike on two of the Pakistani border posts last year. The result of the attack was the death of 24 Pakistani soldiers. The NATO forces kept on attacking for a period of two hours despite the fact
that they were being requested by their Pakistani counter parts in order to stop the aggression.

The Pakistani military termed the attack as an unprovoked act of aggression and demanded an apology from both the NATO forces as well as the US. However, no such apology came from either quarters and only condolences were passed on. The stance of the NATO
forces was that the attack took place because of error on both the sides.

The relations between Pakistan as well as the US reached an all time low in the past decade after the incident with negative sentiment in the public of Pakistan increasing against the US. The government of Pakistan ruled by the Pakistan People’s Party immediately
blocked the NATO supply routed through Pakistan but now there is movement in the government in order to re open them again. The re opening of the NATO supply routes is planned to be resisted strongly by the opposition parties of Pakistan.  

Short URL: https://www.newspakistan.pk/?p=17133

Posted by Rabiya Maqbool on Mar 25 2012. Filed under Pakistan, Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry