September 30, 2008	Tuesday	Ramazan 29, 2008

ISLAMABAD, Sept 29: Leader of the opposition Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan has accused President Asif Ali Zardari of bypassing parliament while taking decisions on major issues.

“Decisions on war on terror and foreign policy must be taken by parliament,” he said at a press conference at the Punjab House on Monday.

According to him, President Zardari was pursuing policies of former president

Gen (retd) Pervez Musharraf who also had ignored parliament and took decisions on national issues on his own.

“Gen Musharraf’s policies have completely failed and Mr Zardari’s policies will also fail,” he said.

“Ironically, decisions about war on terror and foreign policy are being taken in Washington, instead of being decided by parliament,” he said.

Chaudhry Nisar said three vital issues — war on terror, foreign policy and the economic situation — should be discussed in parliament because it was the right forum to devise policies.

“But we feel that that the president is following Gen (retd) Musharraf’s pattern, imposing major national decisions which are being made by the United

States,” he said. He also accused President Zardari of ignoring his announcement that his first official foreign visit would be to China, and instead going to Britain and the US.

Criticising the joint statement after his meeting with the Indian prime minister, he said the statement did not include Pakistan’s stand on contentious issues.

Chaudhry Nisar criticised the government’s foreign policy and said it tilted towards the US and ignored friendly countries like Iran and China.