Mian Raza Rabbani tells US Pakistan not one of its states

ISLAMABAD: The former chairman Senate and senior PPP leader, Senator Mian Raza Rabbani, on Saturday termed the US official's statement on China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) and Pakistan as highly provocative and interference in the internal affairs of a sovereign country.

The Trump administration had sought Pakistan on Friday to ask tough questions from China regarding CPEC, provoking Rabbani to emphasise that the US should realise that Pakistan is not one of its states nor was it a client state of imperialism. “Pakistan is a sovereign country, which has its owneconomic and national security priorities. The people of Pakistan have experienced the 'so called relationship of the US’, be it the US aid given with strings attached or the Kerry-Lugar bill, the arrival of the seventh fleet in the dispute with India, using Pakistan as a front line state against the USSR in Afghanistan or bringing the Jehadis as freedom fighters and then abandoning Pakistan to suffer the consequences of terrorism or the non-payment for using all the facilities during the Afghan operation or the stringent conditionalities imposed by IMF. The list is endless,” he noted.

The PPP leader pointed out that China was a long and trusted strategic partner of Pakistan and had supported it during its worst crisis that was why Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto had termed the relationship higher than Himalayas and deeper than the deepest sea. Raza Rabbani said the “US silence on the genocide and the use of rape, torture and violation of human rights in Occupied Kashmir shows its inclination towards its strategic partner India,” Rabbani further said.

The PPP leader maintained that by asking Pakistan to follow the imperialist model, the US is seeking to economically subjugate Pakistan so that it could play second fiddle to India as the policeman of the region against China. “US must respect Pakistan's economic, political and territorial sovereignty,” he emphasised.