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Friday March 29, 2024

US-India joint statement failure of foreign policy

By Mumtaz Alvi
February 29, 2020

ISLAMABAD: Strongly contesting the government ‘trumpeting’ the success of its foreign policy, the Senate opposition Friday claimed that the US-India ‘joint communiqué at the end of President Donald Trump’s visit had torn Pakistan to bits’.

The government came under a scathing attack from the opposition during the first sitting of the requisitioned session for having no Kashmir policy and economic direction, handing the control of national economy over to ‘outsiders’ and inability to deal with the threat of coronavirus.

Advisor on Finance Dr Hafeez Shaikh was asked to share details of the staff level agreement with the IMF.

Former chairman Senate Senator Mian Raza Rabbani said he was appalled and taken aback to read in a newspaper the other day that Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi had described US President Trump’s remarks during his Indian visit ‘as extraordinary’.

“What was that extraordinary thing on which we are trumpeting and it was being claimed that it was a significant success of Pakistan’s foreign policy?” he asked.

Then, Senator Rabbani asked was this the success that Trump during his news conference said, “Pakistan is working on Kashmir”.

He wondered what were those things on which Pakistan was working that the legislators, Parliament and the masses were completely in the dark, but we were hearing it from President Trump.

He asked the foreign minister to come to the House and explain what Pakistan was working on Kashmir. He also questioned why the Foreign Office welcomed the mediation offer, repeated by Trump and pointed out the US president did not have the moral courage to talk on the genocide in Held Kashmir or even the spilling of blood of Indian Muslims in New Delhi, where he was present when they were being butchered.

“Have we forgotten that Trump was the same person who recognized and legitimized Golan Heights? Have we forgotten that Trump recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel? Have we forgotten that it is he who recently gave Israel-Palestine peace plan in negation of legal rights of Palestinians and their state?” Rabbani argued and asked was the government celebrating this type of mediation and was Pakistan working this way on Kashmir.

Rabbani alleged the government for propagating internally on Kashmir and keeping mum outside Pakistan and this sentence by Trump suggested perhaps that the government was accepting measures taken by India inside Kashmir.

Reading out from the communiqué, Senator Rabbani also questioned was this the success of foreign ministry that both Trump and Modi said that a strong and capable Indian military supports peace, stability and rules-based order in Indo-Pacific.

He asked was the recognition of Indian military might by US a feather in the cap of the government’s foreign policy and the entering into a military a deal for the most sophisticated weapons, which would change the balance in this region. This agreement, he noted, was in addition to several other agreements.

He also referred to Trump and Modi in the communiqué denouncing use of terrorist proxies and strongly condemning the cross border terrorism in its forms. Rabbani asked, who the hell the US and India were to call upon Pakistan, a sovereign country, asserting, “We are not ready to accept this”.

They called upon Pakistan, he read out, to ensure that no territory under its control, was used to launch terrorist attacks and to expeditiously bring to justice the perpetrators of such attacks, including 26/11 and Mumbai and Pathankot and he remarked, “on this, you say that our foreign policy is very successful, whereas the joint communiqué tears to bits Pakistan. We are ready to support this government, if it takes a position on Kashmir against India. But to say that the foreign policy is very successful is in contrast to facts”.

Earlier, on a point of public importance, Rabbani urged Chairman Senate Muhammad Sadiq Sanjrani to summon advisor on finance in relation to reports in newspapers that a staff level agreement between the world imperialist donor agency IMF and the government had been reached but he added it was regrettable that this would be approved by the IMF management and then by the board of directors and then be implemented.

“From Pakistani side, being a sovereign country, three persons took part in talks with IMF and they are advisor on finance, a technocrat, governor SBP, an employee of IMF and secretary finance, a bureaucrat and this brings to fore one thing that there is no place for elected representatives. And there are reports that it has been agreed with IMF that power tariff will be increased, whereas PM recently said the prices of power and others will be frozen. Does this mean that IMF can override the decisions of the prime minister and his cabinet?” he wondered.

Federal Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Muhammad Azam Swati assured the House that the advisor on finance would be in the House by 11:00am to share details of the agreement, as demanded by Senator Rabbani and directed by the chair.

Prior this, Leader of Opposition Raj Muhammad Zafarul Haq read out the opposition’s agenda for the requisition session and said all the issues listed were extremely important. He said that the government was resorting to political victimization and even Dawn newspaper and Dawn TV and Jang Group were facing this situation and were surviving on private ads, otherwise, the government had made it very difficult for them to survive.

He continued that those newspapers or media houses, which did not toe the government line, were facing closure of the government ads and curbs were imposed also and it was demanded to sack employees, as pointed out and this had resulted in rendering many jobless. “This is a great injustice, which will be remembered in history,” he remarked.

PTI Senator Faisal Javed, while responding to some of the opposition senators, it was so easy to dub it political victimisation, which in fact was an international disclosure under Panama Leaks and PTI Chairman Imran Khan powerfully raised his voice and took a strong stance while PML-N government was in place at that time.

He recalled that Imran was dragged to the court and he provided record of last 40 years, proving each and every penny and how it was brought to Pakistan from England and was declared Sadiq and Amin, whereas on the other side, two questions were asked and two documents were shared, which were both fake i.e. a Qatari letter and a trust deed. And the question was how the London flats were purchased and someone, who said to have no property even in Pakistan, turned out to be the beneficiary owner of those flats.

The senator said it was unprecedented that some PTI government cabinet members stepped down to prove their innocence after allegations were leveled against them, including Babar Awan and Swati.

He noted that the price hike and inflation today were due to wrong policies of the past governments, whereas the present government policies had been acknowledged by the World Bank and other donor agencies. He added that for the first time, Prime Minister Imran Khan effectively raised the Kashmir issue and the recent President Trump’s statement was a big success of Pakistan’s foreign policy.

PML-N parliamentary leader Senator Mushahidullah Khan in his hard-hitting attack on the government, said that one should think before speak and recalled Sartaj Aziz was advisor on foreign affairs and seasoned diplomat Tariq Fatemi was the special assistant PTI kept on saying for five years that PML-N had no foreign minister, whereas now there was no health minister, no climate change minister and no finance minister and no information minister as well.

He also noted that when non-issues were made, then, one had to face the payback time. He recalled Darren Sami was being given honorary citizenship while Imran Khan had called him and others in PSL as ‘railu kattaas’.

“Are those, in the cabinet as special assistants and advisors are also railu kattaas?” he wondered.

Senator Mushahidullah again demanded of the government to place the FIA report on recent wheat flour crisis in the House, alleging it was not being shared, as some of those, mentioned in it, were being protected. He noted that the other day in Multan stadium, chants of ‘sugar thief’ echoed, he was the same person, who would bring planeload of people and get them selected and now being rewarded.

He claimed some had been nominated in the report that was why it was sent back with 20 questions with a wink of eye and pointed out that same Wajid Zia of Panama Leaks, was rewarded with a position in FIA.

PPP parliamentary leader Senator Sherry Rehman said, “This forum should have been used to impart vital information about coronavirus pandemic and its current status in the country without causing panic. Our job is to protect the citizens but where are we on that front?”

She said this was a global issue and even the likes of China, which happened to be a robust constructive economy with an exemplary spirit to fight back, were struggling to cope up with it. How will Pakistan tackle such a crippling crisis? Countrywide, schools are shutting down. Saudi Arabia too has suspended Umrah flights.

“The situation necessitated an urgent briefing by the government to take the country into confidence. If I were the health minister I would be proactively standing in this house right now. The Prime Minister himself should have been present here. I am not trying to pin the blame on any one province as the virus could spread anywhere but a student from Iran who flew in and was infected with it had complained of the symptoms, however no tests were performed. There's a risk of more and more people getting infected as we know how this can spread exponentially,” she added.

“A young woman, who does not wish to be named, said that she went to the National Institute of Health to get tested for the virus. She was weeping as she gave an account of how she was made to wait for 40 minutes before she was initially refused. She was later administered the test after much pushing, but it was clear to all that as a facility supposedly open to all, this was shockingly non-functional. In Karachi however, people are getting checked for the virus at the Jinnah terminal. Without delay, directives should have been issued from the floor of this house regarding testing spots for the virus to give a sense of clarity to the people who have no guidance on how to take precautions,” she noted.

Leader of the House Syed Shibli Faraz said special desks at all airports had also been set up to detect the patients with coronavirus and a series of measures, SOPs worked out to deal with any situation.

He said Ministry of National Health Services had adopted proactive measures to tackle the situation. Likewise, awareness campaign in this regard was also underway to educate the people about preventive measures that how to protect them from coronavirus.