Islamabad: Prime Minister Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani has stressed new rules for engagement between Pakistan and the United States.
Addressing
the meeting of Afghan and Pakistani parliamentary delegations held
under the auspicious of Pakistan Institute of Legislative Development
and Transparency at the Prime Minister’s House Wednesday, he said that
Pakistan wanted to take up three issues with the United States, which
encompassed the rules of future engagements between both countries.
The
Prime Minister said that the US must guarantee the sovereignty of
Pakistan, no Abbottabad-like unilateral action in future and if any
credible and actionable information was available, it should be shared
with Pakistan for action. He further added that the drone attacks, which
caused collateral damage, must be stopped as these were grossly
detrimental to the government’s efforts to isolate the terrorists from
local population.
The Prime Minister said that Pakistan cut off
NATO supplies, got Shamsi airbase vacated, and boycotted the Bonn
Conference in the aftermath of the NATO attack on Pakistani army check
post on November 26.
The Prime Minister said that Pakistan
wanted sovereign, independent, prosperous and stable Afghanistan, which
was in the Pakistan’s interests. Pakistan is a part of the solution and
not part of the problem, the Prime Minister said.
The Prime
Minister said that assassination of Prof Bhuranuddin Rabbani, Head of
the Afghan High Peace Council, was a severe setback to the peace and
reconciliation efforts as Prof Rabbani was a great supporter of
friendship between Pakistan and Afghanistan.
The Prime Minister
accepted the suggestion of one of the co-chairmen of the delegation to
inaugurate the Engineering University being built in Balkh with the
assistance of Pakistan.
The Prime Minister asked the Afghan Parliamentarians to express his best wishes to his brother President Hamid Karzai.
Earlier,
Co-chairman of the Afghan Parliamentary delegation and member of Wolesi
Jirga Mr. Abdul Latif Pedram thanked the Prime Minister for inviting
the delegation at the Prime Minister’s House, which provided them with
an opportunity to meeting the Prime Minister. He said that Pakistan was
very important for Afghanistan. He also thanked the government of
Pakistan for financial and technical assistance in the fields of
infrastructure, education and health.
Senator Besmellah
Afghanmal, member of Meshrano Jirga and co-chairman of delegation,
extended the best wishes to the Prime Minister on behalf of President
Karzai.
He recalled the statement of President Karzai that if
Pakistan was attacked either by the US or India, his country would stand
by Pakistan. Senator Besmellah underlined the need of facilitating the
transit trade between Karachi and Kabul. He expressed the hope that
relations between Pakistan and Afghanistan would be strengthened with
the passage of time. Online
