ISLAMABAD Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi assured the National Assembly on Friday the government would not compromise on national sovereignty over a US aid bill as a row erupted in the house over objections aired by army commanders.
But he pleaded for a dispassionate approach to protect national interests after two opposition members condemned conditions for an undetermined military aid in the bill, which seeks to triple non-military American aid to Pakistan, but differed on public expression of a 'grave concern' by an army corps commanders' meeting over unspecified clauses of the legislation impacting on national security.
'This government will never surrender Pakistan's sovereignty, not allow micromanagement (of Pakistan's affairs) ... and we will not compromise on our nuclear deterrent,' Mr Qureshi said in his preliminary remarks over the proceeding of three days of an opposition-sought debate on the 'Kerry-Lugar bill' soon after his return from a US visit, though he said he would give a detailed government response while he would wind up the discussion, which was adjourned until 5pm on Monday.
'I think if we want to protect Pakistan's interests, then we have to be very dispassionate and cool-minded and respect each other's views,' said Mr Qureshi, who was called back home by Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani by cutting short a visit to Washington where the minister discussed implications of the 'Enhanced Partnership with Pakistan Act of 2009' with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and authors of the legislation, which envisages a $7.5 billion ($1.5 billion a year) civilian aid over the next five years and which is extendable for another five years.
He said he had made it clear to the secretary of state, who is to certify Pakistan's compliance with conditionalities applicable to security assistance, that 'we will never compromise on Pakistan's sovereignty and will never allow anybody to micromanage Pakistan,' and added 'Insha-Allah Pakistan's interests will be protected.'
PML-N's senior parliamentarian Javed Hahmi said that while US law-makers had protected their national interests in drafting the aid bill, the Pakistani government, despite its claims of a great diplomatic achievement, had failed to ensure the protection of 'our national interests' in negotiations with Washington about the law through which, according to him, the United States sought to control Pakistan's war machine to turn the country a future battleground after a feared defeat in Afghanistan.
But he took strong objection to a military statement on a meeting of army corps commanders in Rawalpindi on Wednesday that said the forum expressed 'deep concern regarding clauses (of the bill) impacting on national security.'
'This is not the job of the military leadership to go public (to express its views) and should rather have talked about it in a meetng,' Mr Hashmi said, echoing views expressed by several commentators outside parliament as well, for which he won some desk-thumping applause from back-benchers of the ruling Pakistan People's Party.
But Pakistan Muslim League-Q's young member Ms Marvi Memon wondered why President Asif Ali Zardari was reportedly asking PPP law-makers to support the US bill even after receiving the 'input' of objections from the military, describing the situation as 'very, very serious,' and said 'Patriotism demands that you do not accept these conditionalities (of the bill).'
This was the first time views against and for a rare army comment on foreign law were voiced in the debate with a potential to lead to more controversy in parliament.
The Muttahida Qaumi Movement, a partner in the PPP-led ruling coalition neither supported nor opposed the bill, though its member Abdul Qadir Khanzada earlier complained that the government had not taken his party into confidence and repeated party's self-exiled leader Altaf Hussain's demand for convening an all-parties conference on the issue by inviting even parties with no representation in parliament.
Just as the foreign minister stood up to speak, MQM members staged a walkout to protest against what party member Iqbal Mohammad Ali Khan called a police siege of a Federal Lodges rest house in Lahore since the previous night after the party convened a convention there.
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