ISLAMABAD, Sept 2: Rejecting opposition’s charges of a policy U-turn, Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz said on Friday that Pakistan would not recognize Israel before an independent Palestinian state was established and that Thursday’s meeting between Pakistani and Israeli foreign ministers was only a step to engage with the Jewish state in the interest of Middle East peace.
He assured the National Assembly at the end of a short debate sought by the opposition through adjournment motions on the issue that the government had made no policy change about not recognizing Israel and it would take parliament into confidence when “time comes for recognition”.
Opposition members protested against what most of them saw as a policy change reflected in the meeting.
While members from the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal called the move a betrayal of the Palestinian cause, those from the People’s Party Parliamentarians and the Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) mainly objected to what they saw as decision-making solely by President Pervez Musharraf bypassing parliament.
Some ruling coalition members, including Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Khusro Bakhtiar, defended the meeting, which they said would help a negotiated settlement of the Palestinian problem.
The MMA also staged a token walkout to protest against the meeting, while the PPP walked out to protest against what MNA Manzoor Hussain Wasan called three armed attacks on him by followers of the PML (Functional), during the local body elections.
“There is no U-turn in policy,” the prime minister said in his speech before the house was adjourned until Monday evening. “We have only talked (with the Israeli foreign minister) to support the Palestinian cause.”
He asked if Pakistan enjoyed a certain position in the world, “why not use it for the Ummah”? and said: “We are playing on the front foot.”
Mr Aziz said the government’s foreign policy was in national interest on which, he assured the house, “we will not compromise.”
Referring to some MMA members’ fears that the government would be forced to give up the country’s principled positions on both Kashmir and Palestine, he said he had told Indian Foreign Secretary Shyam Saran in a meeting on Thursday that there could be no lasting peace in the sub-continent without a settlement of the Kashmir issue.
“There has never been, nor there will be, a compromise on national interests,” the prime minister said.
The initiative for Thursday’s meeting, he said, was made after Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, during a visit here in May, urged President Musharraf to play a role for a Palestinian settlement and the Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyep Erdogan also suggested — during Mr Aziz’s visit to Turkey — that Islamabad engage with Israel.
He said Pakistan again talked to Mr Abbas, Saudi King Abdullah and some important Muslim countries before sending Mr Kasuri for the meeting and “we told them that we will not recognize until Palestine becomes independent.”
“There is no harm in talking. This also shows Pakistan and the Muslim Ummah believe in inter-faith harmony,” he said.
He said Pakistan opted for an open contact with Israel rather than doing it through the back door.
The prime minister said the government would have no objection if the opposition sought a detailed debate on the Palestinian issue in parliament and would like to benefit from “constructive criticism”.
MMA member Liaqat Baloch accused the government of taking another U-turn after doing so about Afghanistan and Kashmir and said Pakistan would be forced by unspecified powers to follow what he called a “disastrous path” of recognizing Israel.
M.P. Bhandara of the PML said the Palestinians wanted Pakistan to use its influence for a settlement which, according to him, could be achieved through a step-by-step approach rather than suicide bombers or use of force.
PPP secretary-general Raja Pervez Ashraf said although there might have been no harm in meeting the Israeli foreign minister, President Musharraf had created a “dangerous situation” by making a sudden U-turn in a long-standing national policy without consulting parliament or the cabinet, adding that no decision taken without consulting the nation would have any force.
Minister of State for Health Shahnaz Sheikh said Pakistan was playing a role in the interest of the Ummah by initiating solution-oriented talks.
PML-N member Khwaja Mohammad Asif said he thought there was no harm in recognizing Israel at an appropriate time as done by some Arab countries but regretted that an individual in the person of Gen Musharraf had become the sole arbiter in derogation of parliament’s sovereignty.
Muttahida Qaumi Movement parliamentary leader Farooq Sattar welcomed the government’s initiative, saying issues like Palestine and Kashmir should be resolved through dialogue but urged the president and prime minister to take parliament into confidence in future on “such sensitive matters”.
MMA’s Hafiz Hussain Ahmed said the president did not talk to parliament although he consulted the Saudi king and the Palestinian president about the meeting and, in a reference to Gen Musharraf’s plan to address an American Jewish Congress meeting in New York, asked: “Is he our representative or a representative of the Jewish lobby whom he will address?”
Parliamentary Secretary for Defence Tanveer Hussain Syed of the Pakistan People’s Party justified the meeting, saying dialogue had been an important part of Islamic history and international relations, and accused religious parties of using religion for politics to meet their own ends.
The minister of state for foreign affairs called the opposition criticism “empty rhetoric” and said it was an onus on Pakistan to try for a solution in accordance with the Palestinian aspirations.
PPP’s Naheed Khan, apparently supporting dialogue with Israel, said “realities should be faced” but called for an end to what she called double-standards and “one-man show”.
PML-N parliamentary leader Nisar Ali Khan said such an important issue should be discussed in detail and accused the government of “tearing into pieces” the nation’s principled stands on Kashmir and Palestine.
Earlier, PML president Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain said talks with Israel would help the Palestinian cause and added: “It is very strange that marriages with Jews are right but talking to them is wrong.”