Armed forces can take any action for country’s defence: Malik

Pakistani armed forces are completely capable and can exercise any option to defend the country, Interior Minister Rehman Malik said on Friday.
Winding up a debate on NATO incursions in Pakistan, Malik said the UN had given NATO mandate to carry out its activities only inside Afghanistan and the attacks inside Pakistan were a clear violation of that.
The interior minister assured the House that the government was clear on what it needed to do on the NATO attacks inside Pakistan. “We have conveyed the rage of the government and the people of the country to ISAF and the US,” he added.
He said Pakistan was an ally of the US and NATO for the past 11 years in the war against terrorism.
Malik said NATO had submitted an apology, adding that “we don’t want such incidents repeated in future.”
He said Pakistan’s military leadership had also taken up the issue at their level and hoped that such incidents would not happen again.
Malik said the apology by US and NATO over border incursions was a victory for parliament and the government.
“Afghanistan is equally suffering and if they need any help, we will provide that,” Malik said, adding that the prime minister had also taken up the issue of violation of Pakistan’s sovereignty with NATO.
Talking about Thursday’s attack in Karachi, Malik said the “footprints go back to South Waziristan”, adding that one of the attackers who had been identified belonged to the Mehsud tribe.
Earlier, Aftab Sherpao criticized the government for the NATO attacks, adding that the provincial government needed to establish its writ to thwart such attacks.
He said the US wanted to interfere in North Waziristan, which was of utmost importance and the issue should be looked into. Sherpao said the House should be briefed on what the US wanted.
Sherry Rehman said the NATO incursion inside Pakistan showed that Pakistan and the US had failed in the war on terror in Afghanistan. She sought details of a reported increase of Rs 110 billion in the defence budget. She lamented that parliament was not being taken into confidence on the increase in the defence budget.
Minister for Law Babar Awan said parliamentary oversight was evident and assured the House that details would be shared with it.
National Assembly Speaker Fehmida Mirza adjourned the National Assembly session sine-dine.
Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) continued its boycott of the National Assembly against the passage of Sacked Employees (Reinstatement) Bill on Friday.
The NA speaker said the opposition had an important role to play. Therefore the members of the PML-N should be persuaded to end their boycott.