ISLAMABAD, Nov 17: The government told the National Assembly on Monday it hoped for a policy review by the new US administration of President-elect Barack Obama taking office next month, while repeating its rejection of a US newspaper report that alleged a tacit deal between the two sides allowing drone attacks on Pakistani tribal areas.

Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi cited unexplained “indications of a policy review” by the new US administration and said: “We hope we will be able to bring about this change.”

Both he and Information and Broadcasting Minister Sherry Rehman denied the Washington Post report of Sunday that quoted unidentified officials as saying the US and Pakistani governments had reached a “tacit agreement” in September that allowed often deadly rocket attacks by unmanned US spy panes into the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) and enabled Pakistan to publicly protest against the raids without fear of contradiction.

“There is no understanding or tacit understanding,” Mr Qureshi said after PML-N’s Ahsan Iqbal and two other opposition members sought the government’s response to the report, particularly in light of a joint resolution of the two houses of parliament passed in an in-camera session last month that asked the government to safeguard Pakistan’s sovereignty.

But the minister did not respond to Mr Iqbal’s query afterwards whether the government intended to sue the Washington Post in a court of law for publishing a report that he said had “destroyed Pakistan’s image”. Mr Qureshi assured the house the government respected the parliamentary resolution that he said “reflects the national thinking”.

But he pointed out that Pakistan and the United were allies, not foes, in the so-called war against terrorism and said: “We are tackling (the issue of drone attacks) through diplomatic channels … and there has been a considerable progress (in this respect).”

“The question does not arise that the government will make such an understanding for attacks on our own people,” Ms Rehman she said earlier and added: “We ourselves will do whatever is to be done.”

The information minister said neither the federal government nor the Sindh government had any hand in blocking broadcasts of two private television channels in Karachi, Hyderabad and some other towns in Sindh earlier on Monday after PML-N’s Ahsan Iqbal called for exposing what he called ‘hidden hands’ or a ‘state within a state’ responsible for the disruption.

Ms Rehman promised an investigation by both the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (Pemra) and the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) but said the government could not take action against anybody without a formal complaint by an aggrieved party.

Mr Iqbal questioned the minister’s argument that action could not be taken against “such a big disruption” of Geo News and ARYONE World broadcasts by cable operators in the absence of a formal complaint and asked: “Will the government stand idly by if tomorrow somebody hijacks a plane or a city is taken over and we will be helpless? Who are the hidden hands more powerful than the federal government and the Sindh government and continuing the (anti-media) policy of former president Pervez Musharraf?”

Ms Rehman said she had been in contact with the managements of the two television channels and both acknowledged the government was not responsible the suspension of their broadcasts.

Meanwhile only one opposition member spoke on Monday on President Asif Ali Zardari’s address to a joint sitting of parliament in September as the PPP-led ruling coalition seemed to be shying away from the debate because of likely attacks on the presidency.

PML-Q member Humayun Saifullah concentrated mainly on oft-repeated complaints of provinces not getting their due share of their resources, though he called for the formation of an all-parties parliamentary committee to ‘revisit’ the controversial 17th Amendment.

But most members present in the sparsely attended house, including Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, seemed disinterested in only the third speech in the debate in as many sittings and preferred chatting with one another.

“Is somebody listening to me or taking notes,” Mr Saifullah once asked the chair while the prime minister was seen either receiving and signing what looked like applications from members from both the opposition and coalition benches or chatting with the foreign minister sitting next to him.

“Yes Parliamentary Affairs Minister (Babar Awan) is taking notes,” replied Deputy Speaker Fazal Karim Kundi, whose call for order in the house went unheeded as member made a beeline to the prime minister’s desk.