ISLAMABAD: Senators belonging to the opposition on Friday asked Prime Minister Imran Khan to come to the house and explain a ‘shift in foreign policy’.

Pakistan Peoples Party parliamentary leader in the Senate Sherry Rehman was the first to raise the issue in the house on Friday. Speaking on a point of public importance, she said Prime Minister Imran Khan met President Donald Trump in Davos this week and on an important international forum he clearly said his first priority was Afghanistan.

“That means Kashmir is no more the first priority. Has the government taken a U-turn on Kashmir? Should the pain and anguish of Kashmir not feature first in that scale of priorities? Unless it was one of our PM’s usual slip-of-the-tongue moments during foreign tours, it indicates a major shift in terms of our foreign policy, yet parliament has not been informed about it”.

Ms Rehman stressed that the prime minister should share his priorities and knowledge with parliament because it had the right to know as well as the right to discuss foreign policy.

Opposition alleges Kashmir issue has been put on back burner, US is being given preference over China

She said the PPP had always respected parliament’s right to decide, to demonstrate its belief in supremacy of parliament, and recalled that it was after parliamentary consultation that the PPP dealt with the Salala tragedy by insisting on an apology from the US and shutting down the Shamsi airbase and Nato supply lines for seven months.

“Now that President Trump has again insisted on mediating between India and Pakistan, we ask what terms of reference our side offered for such a critical discussion,” the senator said.

“My issue or question is not with the US administration but from our own government as to what such discussions lead to, and what do they convey,” she said. “After the government’s celebrations on President Trump’s earlier offer of mediation, we saw no movement on any issue. It seems we are only interested in headlines. This was followed by India’s arbitrary annexation of occupied Kashmir”.

Wondering as to what had happened to solidarity with Kashmiris, she said: “Our political parties have roots in Kashmir and we are asked questions about what we are doing. I hope there has not been a shift in our policy on Kashmir but it is clear that there is absolutely no transparency on the discussions that take place with any of the global leadership and what exactly our leaders ask for a just peace in Kashmir is squared with his [Trump’s] generous and frequent offers for mediation. Either we are not able to take it forward or we exchange such goodwill for other concessions, we do not know.”

Mir Hasil Bizenjo of the National Party said the government appeared to be inclined towards the United States at the cost of Pakistan’s time-tested friend China, and asked if a move was under way to roll back the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).

He said that while Communications Minister Murad Saeed had repeatedly alleged wrongdoing in Multan-Sukkur Motorway built by a Chinese state-owned company, Adviser to the Prime Minister on Commerce Abdul Razak Dawood had called for reviewing all CPEC projects signed with China.

Mr Bizenjo also referred to the remarks made by ambassador Alice Wells during her recent visit to Pakistan that companies blacklisted by the World Bank had been awarded contracts for CPEC projects.

Mushahid Hussain Sayed of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz also termed Ms Wells’ remarks blatant interference in internal affairs of Pakistan and said the companies in question had been blacklisted by the US. He said some companies blacklisted by the US were operating in the United Kingdom.

He said global balance of economic and political power was shifting. “We see the West in decline while nine of the top 20 global business companies are from China. “India continues to be the first love of the US,” he said, adding that President Trump’s visit to South Asia due next month was only for India and not Pakistan.

Leader of the House in the Senate Syed Shibli Faraz said it would be inappropriate to create an impression that the government had put Kashmir on the back burner or that there was a paradigm shift in the country’s foreign policy.

“We have to be friends with everybody and the basis of these relations should be interests of Pakistan. While we cannot stop somebody from making a comment, we do not make friends at the cost of any other friend,” he remarked.

He said Prime Minister Khan had explained his position on the CPEC in an interview in Davos, clearly mentioning the share of loan portfolio in the CPEC projects. He assured the house that the prime minister would soon attend the Senate session to explain the contours of his government’s foreign policy.

Earlier, the opposition blocked the government’s move to lay an ordinance before the house. When Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Azam Swati tried to lay before the house an ordinance to amend the Enforcement of Women’s Property Rights Bill already passed by the National Assembly, the opposition slammed the government’s move to promulgate an ordinance to amend a law yet to be passed by the Senate, and that too when the house was in session.

The minister was advised to propose any change at the Senate standing committee concerned, which was scheduled to meet the same day, or in the house, as the bill was to be sent again to the National Assembly in any case if it was passed by the Senate with any amendment. The minister said the law minister will shortly be coming to the house.

However, when the house met again after Friday prayers, neither the law minister nor the parliamentary affairs minister turned up.

Shibli Faraz in principle agreed with the position taken by the opposition, but suggested that the issue be deferred till Monday.

Published in Dawn, January 25th, 2020