(Why to Blame US When Every Time We Came Volunteer Ourselves in the First Place)
US used us in Afghan war, reminds Rabbani
By Mumtaz Alvi
June 14, 2016
Print : Top Story
ISLAMABAD: The Senate Chairman, Mian Raza Rabbani, during the Senate proceedings said on Monday that Pakistan was used by the US in the Afghan war. “Was not it a fact that we had compromised our national interests in search of dollars?” he questioned.
Earlier, Adviser to Prime Minister on Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz said the region needed more than one port and Gwadar and Chabahar ports were complementary and sister ports, brushing aside the impression that the former posed any threat to Pakistan’s deep-sea port.
He conceded that Islamabad’s reliance on Washington had been increasingly dwindling, which had cooperated more with the dictators in the past as compared to democratic governments. The treasury and opposition senators urged the government to accord top priority to the western route of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, as agreed at the APC last year in February, for presently, there was no work at all on this promised route.
Winding up the debate on an admitted motion by Mian Muhammad Ateeq Shiekh of MQM regarding the recent accord by India, Afghanistan and Iran to develop the Chabahar Port, the advisor said Iran had offered Pakistan to join this project and under a memorandum of understanding, a rail link was proposed to be built, linking the two.
The advisor said it was a fact that the United States had cooperated more with the dictatorial regimes in Pakistan as compared to democratic governments. He also pointed out that Gwadar was a deep seaport and Chahbahar was not so and therefore, utility of Gwadar was much greater than Chahbahar and what was needed was to pay full attention to this vital project.
About the growing Indo-US relations, he said broader geo-political factors were involved, particularly the US policy of containing China, where India fitted in. He said Pakistan was preparing dossiers about activities of RAW agents in fomenting trouble in Balochistan and elsewhere in the country.
He agreed with the senators that Indian PM Narendra Modi’s speech in the US Congress was anti-Pakistan. Earlier, PPP Senator Farhatullah Babar said that Pakistan’s isolation was rooted more in its unrealistic foreign policy goals and objectives than in anything else.
“Frustration and isolation will result when we insist on projecting the state power under nuclear umbrella without regard to the limitations of our true national power and without regard to the problems of militancy, extremism, sectarianism and economic weaknesses,” he noted.
He contended in the wake of Mansoor’s killing, instead of doing some soul searching, Pakistan raised yet again the Jihadi banner. Other senators, including Mushahid Hussain Sayed of PML-Q, Usman Kakar and Asam Musakhail of Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party, Javed Abbasi of PML-N, ANP’s Shahi Syed, PPP’s Taj Haider, Zaheerud Din and Saifullah Magsi and Tahir Mashhadi of MQM, Mir Kabeer of the National Party and PTI’s Kenneth Williams strongly supported the idea of having foreign policy formulated by parliament. They shared consensus on allocation of adequate funds for the CPEC’s western route, fearing presently, it was being totally ignored in total disregard to the consensus APC decision.
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