LONDON, May 11: Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani said on Friday that Pakistan and the United States were holding negotiations over the reopening of routes for Nato supplies to Afghanistan following a unanimous resolution adopted by parliament on the recommendations of the Parliamentary Committee on National Security.
In the light of these recommendations and resolution, Pakistan’s discussions with the US were currently in progress; therefore a decision whether or not to attend the Nato summit in Chicago has yet not been taken.
Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar said Pakistan had not yet received a formal invitation to attend the Chicago summit, so we shall take a decision only after we received an invitation.
Asked to comment on the political crisis in the wake of last week’s detailed judgment of the Supreme Court and how it impacted his visit to the UK, Mr Gilani said there was no crisis in the country even though some people were creating a lot of hue and cry to get political support.
“Mauj hai darya mein aur bairoone darya kutch nahin” (There are waves in the river and nothing outside), he saidHe said Britain was considered to be the mother of all democracies and hence the Supreme Court judgment and the political heat created by some politicians did not have any impact in the UK because it was a question of constitutional interpretation and he had not been convicted in a corruption case.
He did not agree with a questioner that all the four institutions were on a warpath in Pakistan and said the Constitution provided trichotomy of power and if all the institutions performed their roles while remaining within the constitutional limits there would be no confrontation.
He said it was only Nawaz Sharif who was creating an environment of confrontation, adding that Shahbaz Sharif’s decision to lead agitations against loadshedding was in violation of the Constitution.
He criticised the PML-N for writing to the British government and the speaker not to entertain him (Gilani) because of the Supreme Court decision. He said Prime Minister David Cameron had stated that Mr Gilani played a key role in stabilising democracy in Pakistan.
He likened the policies of Nawaz Sharif and Shahbaz Sharif with that of Maulana Bhashani and said the politics of agitation and ‘Jalao-Gherao’ was not reasonable.
He said the Sharif brothers were following the politics of agitation out of fear that Imran Khan would take away their votes but they should realise that they could not have taken two enjoyments with one ticket by staying in power and launching movement against the federal government.
He said the Punjab government did not honour a unanimous decision about energy crisis because the easing of people’s hardships would not suit their policies of protest and agitation.
Responding to questions about Ms Hillary Clinton’s statements about Hafiz Saeed, Aiman-al-Zawahiri and Mullah Omar, he said Saeed’s case was in the court which required solid evidence to reach a judgment. “It is up to the court to decide the matter if it is convinced with evidence and not a decision of the government.”
Regarding Zawahiri and Mullah Omar, he said the CIA and ISI had been working very closely and had achieved success in dealing with some very high-value targets. So if they have any information it should be shared with Pakistan so that the CIA and ISI could take a joint action.
Responding to a question about South Punjab province, the prime minister said the intention of the PML-N leadership were not honest because they had been opposed to the tabling of a resolution in the Punjab Assembly, but when cornered in the coalition partners in the National Assembly, they had change their stance.