MULTAN: Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi has stressed that no backdoor or diplomatic dialogue is under way with India.

“There is no possibility of a backdoor or diplomatic dialogue with India in the prevailing situation and it is not possible until the Indian atrocities are stopped in Kashmir. The circumstances are not suitable for any dialogue at the moment,” he remarked.

Talking to the media here on Wednesday, the foreign minister further mentioned why the government rejected the 34 amendments to the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) laws proposed by the opposition parties, saying as it “smelt a National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO)” in the proposal.

He claimed that the opposition parties had clearly demanded that if the government wanted any legislation in connection with the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) it should also give them concessions by discussing amendments to the NAB laws.

“We told them that both the parties remained in power for 10 years and were in a position to amend the NAB laws, but failed, which is their negligence not ours. However, if you still want amendments, we can discuss it but it should not be linked with legislation in connection with the FATF and should be discussed separately. They gave us a draft of 34 amendments where we smelled an NRO. I… categorically state that there is a capacity to improve the NAB laws but we will not strike any deal,” he stressed.

Mr Qureshi said that instead of merely threatening, the opposition Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) legislators should go ahead and resign without any delay. He also asked them to submit the resignations to the assembly speaker instead of the PDM leadership.

He said the government will not compromise on national interest to remain in power or succumb to any pressure. “We are ready to hold dialogue on whatever issues the opposition wants to discuss,” he added.

Published in Dawn, December 24th, 2020