ISLAMABAD: Minister for Foreign Affairs Hina Rabbani Khar on Tuesday held Afghan refugees living in Pakistan responsible for the assassination of former Afghan president Prof Burhanuddin Rabbani. “We are not responsible if Afghan refugees crossed the border and entered Kabul, stayed in a guest house and attacked Prof Rabbani,” she told Senate during the question-hour session.
She said Pakistan wanted “best relations with Afghanistan” to ensure peace and stability in the region and for jointly fighting extremism and terrorism.
Afghanistan was the most important country for Pakistan as security of both countries was inter-linked, the foreign affairs minister stated.
She, however, stressed that Islamabad must not be blamed for every problem faced by Kabul. “Pakistan has baselessly been charged with recent attacks in Kabul. If they have any problem, Pakistan should not be made a scapegoat by the Afghan government and other countries. We are part of the solution, and not part of the problem,” Hina Rabbani said.
The minister said Pakistan was in the process of reviewing different aspects of its foreign policy.
In reply to a question, the foreign minister said besides the ambassador and three other officials, a 36-strong staff was working at the Pakistan embassy in Kabul.
Justifying the strength of the Kabul mission, she said since a threat to the embassy had arisen after the killing of Prof Rabbani, most of the people were performing security-related duties.
PAKISTANIS IN LIBYA: In reply to a question about repatriation of Pakistanis from Libya, Ms Khar said 6,082 Pakistanis had been repatriated from Libya after the situation deteriorated there. The government operated special flights to airlift Pakistan nationals directly from Libya. A large number of Pakistanis were also brought home through Algeria, Egypt, Tunisia and Turkey.
She informed the Senate that at present 2,100 Pakistanis were living in Libya and that they did not want to return home.
Ms Khar told the House that a polo pony was gifted to the King of Malaysia in 2007 by then President Pervez Musharraf on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of that country’s independence day. She said no other gift of livestock had been given to any dignitary through the ministry of foreign affairs since then.
The minister left the House before the question-hour session was over because she was scheduled to meet her Serbian counterpart. She, however, told the house in a written reply that Pakistani missions abroad had collected Rs13.36 billion against provision of Pakistani visas and other facilities over the past five years.
The statistics provided by her revealed that Rs3.57 billion was generated in 2006-2007. It was for the first time in five years that the figure had crossed Rs3 billion. The highest revenue earned by diplomatic missions abroad in a single year was Rs2.9 billion in 2009-2010.
DRUG BODY: The Leader of the House in Senate, Syed Nayyar Hussain Bokhari, told legislators that the government was ready to work on a law for establishment of a drug regulatory authority, but added that it required consent of provinces as health had now been devolved to provinces under the 18th Amendment. He said all provinces, except Punjab, had given their consent.
Ishaq Dar, Parliamentary Leader of the PML-N in Senate, said that although health was now a provincial subject, the devolution of Lahore’s Sheikh Zaid Hospital had been made a “matter of ego by the People’s Party”.
He held out an assurance that he would get resolution for the establishment of a drug authority passed by the Punjab Assembly “within 72 hours” if the government resolved the Sheikh Zaid hospital controversy.
Former information minister Mohammad Ali Durrani accused Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani of fanning linguistic prejudice in southern Punjab, citing stoppage of funds for Bahawalpur after clamour picked up for revival of provincial status.
The House will meet again at 5pm on Wednesday.
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