ISLAMABAD: While US Senator John Kerry is due to arrive in Pakistan on Sunday to address concerns on the controversial Kerry-Lugar Bill, opposition against the aid bill continued in the national assembly on Saturday.

Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi told reporters in Islamabad that the US administration has cleared all the apprehensions about the bill.
         
Qureshi defended the provisions of the Kerry-Lugar Bill in the parliament on Friday and urged politicians to hold the interest of the state above political gains.

Opposition parties protested the aid Bill inside and outside the parliament, despite FM Qureshi’s impassioned appeals.

‘We have rejected Kerry-Lugar bill in our party meeting. The Foreign Minister just delivered his speech but did not put the bill before the House. Had done presented it, I am sure it would have been voted out by the parliament,’ said a clearly upset PML-N leader Javed Hashmi.

The opposition is not satisfied with an explanatory note that has been attached to the bill by the US Administration as they still see it as an attempt by the US to interfere in Pakistan’s internal affairs.

‘I wanted to ask Mr Qureshi where he was when the bill was being drafted. It was a very long exercise. When criticism started they went back to DC, when the armed forces pointed out their reservations and certain flaws in the bill,’ remarked Senator Javed Ali Shah outside the Parliament House.

Criticism of the bill is expected to carry on despite government’s attempts to pacify the House.