Calling for complete national unity, Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani said on Friday that Pakistan would revisit its national security paradigm following the NATO strikes on its border posts in the dead of night as this incident was an attack on the country’s territorial integrity and sovereignty.
“The terms of our engagement with the United States and NATO/ISAF have to be revisited on the basis of sovereign equality, mutual interest and mutual respect. Our continued cooperation in this regard can only be premised on a partnership approach that is consistent with Pakistan’s national interests and scrupulous respect for Pakistan’s sovereignty, independence and absolutely zero tolerance for any transgression against Pakistan’s state frontiers,” said the prime minister in his opening remarks at the meeting of the Parliamentary Committee on National Security.
The prime minister said the national interests were supreme. “All policies, positions and actions should conform to safeguarding and advancing of our national interests… Our security and counter-terrorism policy needs to be pursued in a manner that suits Pakistan’s national interests… I look forward to your recommendations in this regard,” he said.
‘PROBLEM’: He said that in recent months, there had been a tendency to project Pakistan not as a ‘partner’ but as the ‘problem’. “Our enormous sacrifices and contribution in the campaign against militancy and terror have not been adequately acknowledged. What is worse is the tendency to make Pakistan into a scapegoat for failings of international policies in Afghanistan,” he asserted.Gilani said while Pakistan continued to protest against the drone attacks, which were clearly illegal and counter-productive, the country had also been subjected to numerous cross-border attacks by militants from sanctuaries and safe havens in Afghanistan. Brushing aside the notion that Pakistan was seeking aid or economic assistance from the United States, Gilani said: “Pakistan does not seek economic assistance or aid from the US. What we seek, in fact demand, is respect for our sovereignty and territorial integrity; a firm and categorical commitment on the inviolability of our borders and on non-recurrence of such incidents,” he added.
“Our efforts to improve our relations with Afghanistan and support for Afghan-led and Afghan-owned efforts for reconciliation and peace have been misconstrued and actively subverted by certain quarters,” said the prime minister.
LIMIT TO PATIENCE: He said there was a limit to Pakistan’s patience as cooperation could not be a one-way street. “Under these most challenging and difficult circumstances, Pakistan has maintained a principled approach and exercised utmost restraint,” he said, adding that it would be a grave miscalculation for anyone to believe that stability and peace in Afghanistan could be restored or maintained by destabilising Pakistan. “Under no circumstances, will we allow Pakistan’s sovereignty and territorial integrity to be jeopardised by ill-considered and rash actions such as the attacks on our territory by NATO/ISAF. Our patriotic people and valiant armed forces will spare no sacrifice in the defence of their motherland. Instructions have been issued to all units of the Pakistan armed forces to respond, with full force, to any act of aggression and infringement of Pakistan’s territorial frontiers,” he added.
