‘Parliament to decide future ties with allies’

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Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani on Tuesday said Pakistan would evaluate all options after the violation of working mechanism by NATO with an attack on Pakistani security forces in Mohmand Agency.
In an interview with a private television, he said Pakistan would revisit engagement with NATO and International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in the backdrop of the Mohmand incident.
“Pakistan has told the US administration that incident of Mohmand agency will not be acceptable,” he added.
Gilani said he would take parliament and the country’s leadership into confidence to reach a decision.
“The strategy of the government will be brought before parliament so that the leadership can arrive at a consensus. Pakistan has asked the US to vacate Shamsi airbase in two weeks and stopped all NATO supplies,” he said.
Reports about any other base were just speculation, he added.
Gilani said that under an understanding, the US was obligated to inform Pakistan about any operation in its territory, 72 hours in advance, “but that has been violated”.
He said the government would follow the resolution of parliament and All-Parties Conference (APC) on relations with the US.
The prime minister said the civilian and military leadership was on the same page on national issues and after the Abbottabad incident, “all services chiefs and the ISI briefed the joint sitting of parliament and answered all queries of parliamentarians”.
He said Parliament’s Committee on National Security had been assigned to probe into the memorandum issue and the nation would know the truth about the matter as promised by the government.
Gilani said the matter would be fairly investigated by the parliamentary committee.
About the appointment of Sherry Rehman as the ambassador to the US, he said it was first a decision of the party and later his own.
He said the Taliban should decommission and denounce violence and the government would then be ready to talk to them to bring them into the mainstream.
“However, if somebody challenges the writ of government, it will not be accepted,” he added.
To a question about the statement of Defence Minister Ahmed Mukhtar on the memo issue, he said the minister was right to say that the prime minister would be responsible as the chief executive of the country.
But “we have to see the credibility of the memo and I will not jump to the conclusion”, he remarked. Gilani said 80 percent of the Aghaz-e-Haqooq-e-Balochistan package had been implemented and 27 resolutions of the Balochistan Assembly had also been implemented.
The prime minister said he would convene a meeting of federal agencies and provincial departments to take stock of law and order in Balochistan and form a strategy to stop targeted killings in the province.