October 20, 2008	Monday	Shawwal 20, 1429

MULTAN, Oct 19: Foreign Minister Makhdoom Shah Mehmood Qureshi on Sunday urged the opposition to respond positively to the government’s efforts aimed at achieving national consensus on important issues like defeating militancy and overcoming the effects of economic recession.

Talking to reporters here, Mr Qureshi said that the situation was so sensitive that the country could not afford political point-scoring at a time like this. “The opposition will get other chances.”

Referring to the in-camera session of parliament, the foreign minister said: “For God’s sake, do not resort to politicking on sensitive issues. We want to … to devise a policy that benefits Pakistan.”

He said the country urgently needed to devise a national consensus strategy to overcome problems that would simply not evaporate in the coming years.

Answering a question about PML-N leader Nawaz Sharif’s proposal about the formation of a parliamentary committee on the situation, the foreign minister said it would be given due consideration.

Dispelling an impression that the government had decided to seek an economic bailout package from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), he said the government wanted to devise a home-grown economic stabilisation programme which matched the national requirements and suited “our domestic conditions”.

Experts like Hafeez Pasha and Dr Akmal Hussain are advising the government to chalk out a strategy for economic stability, he said, adding that they would give a presentation to the prime minister in a few days, enabling him to take a decision.

The foreign minister said that recession was a global phenomenon and it was affecting Pakistan as well, adding that the country’s problems might appear to be greater than others but it was facing these problems because the previous government had delayed taking some strategic decisions because of political expediency. The situation, he said, had been compounded by an alarming rise in oil and food prices.

He said that during the inaugural meeting of the ‘Friends of Pakistan’ forum, to be held in Abu Dhabi, Pakistan would convey to the world that the country had been paying a terrible economic price of its policy on the war on terror. “We are trying to persuade the world to support us in our efforts against militancy. Everyone knows we were left alone earlier and it caused us great damage.”

He said that government was trying to assess the impact of policies adopted during the past seven to eight years.—APP