LAHORE, July 4: Condemning the restoration of Nato supplies, the Pakistan Tehrik-i-Insaaf has announced protesting the PPP government’s act which, it says, is in violation of the parliamentary resolutions.

Speaking at a press conference along with former foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi here on Wednesday, PTI chairman Imran Khan regretted that sovereignty of parliament was transgressed by not taking on board the National Security Committee of the National Assembly before taking the decision.

He lamented that the government took a U-turn by accepting mere regrets of US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton instead of unconditional apology as demanded by the Security Committee in its recommendations.

About the government’s pledge of providing security to the trucks carrying the supplies within the country, the PTI chairman wondered if Pakistani taxpayers would be paying for the security in return for drone attacks and damage to road network.Mr Khan said the supply route should have been opened only for facilitating withdrawal of Nato troops from Afghanistan and not for killing poor civilians there.

He recalled that the parliamentary committee had also called for an immediate end to drone attacks and halting infiltration from Afghanistan side, but he regretted that none of the objectives had been fulfilled when the decision was taken.

He also said as per the committee’s recommendations and subsequent assurances by the government, the panel was to ratify the decision on the supplies issue before making the agreement functional but the procedure was not adhered to. He wondered why the government dropped the $5,000 per container transit fee on the supplies.

The PTI chairman said the MPs should immediately resign if they had a modicum of honour as their repeated resolutions were not given weight by the government while taking the decision. He said at least the PML-N MPs should respond to the call as they were part of the Security Committee that had recommended certain conditions for restoring the supplies and the same were not fulfilled.

Mr Qureshi regretted that by accepting Salala attack as a result of ‘mutual mistake’ Islamabad backed out of its stance of rejecting the similar result of Nato investigations into the incident. Islamabad had then described the attack as “unprovoked, deliberate and planned,” he added.

He also said the demand for bringing to justice the Salala accused was also not met.

The PTI chairman said time for tsunami marches was nearing in as he would give a call for the purpose.

Mr Khan said the party would protest the supplies restoration decision in Gujranwala rally on Thursday (today) and in Peshawar on July 14. The rallies were basically planned to protest loadshedding.

He said the protest would be from the platform of the PTI as no decision to join hands with other parties or alliances on the issue had so far been taken. He, however, told a questioner that PML-N President Nawaz Sharif (who had left only the other day for Germany) should return home at this critical juncture. JUI-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman also used to disappear in such a situation, he added.

JI: The Jamaat-i-Islami has condemned the unblocking of Nato supplies by the government, terming it a ‘seal (of confirmation) on the rulers’ slavery’ to Washington.

In a statement on Wednesday, Jamaat head Munawwar Hasan said the rulers put a ‘seal on the document of their slavery’ by restoring the supplies which, he said, would further strengthen the enemies of Islam and Pakistan.

He said the Defa-i-Pakistan Council (DPC), an alliance of largely religious hardliner parties of which the JI is a component, would soon decide its future line of action and urged the masses to rise for the country’s independence and for the protection of its nuclear weapons.

He regretted that instead of curtailing the US interference in the region, the government had paved the way for its intensification.