ISLAMABAD
An adjournment motion was moved in the Senate on Friday to discuss whether the $1.5 billion bailout by an unnamed Muslim country was related to the change in the country’s policy of neutrality over Syria.
The motion was moved by PPP Senator Farhatullah Babar.
In a statement, he said that the claim of national debts coming down by Rs 800 billion as a result of rupee rising in value against dollar following the $1.5 billion bailout was most welcome but, “we need to be reassured there is no quid pro quo and trade off with a critical area of our foreign policy”.
Finance Minister Ishaq Dar said on Wednesday that a Muslim country had given Pakistan $1.5 billion towards ‘Pakistan Development Fund’ but the donor country did not wish to be identified.
“The secrecy raises questions. We need to know when was the Pakistan Development Fund set up and for what purpose and what happened to the fund set up sometime back by the Friends of Democratic Pakistan. We also need to know whether it is outright grant, or aid or loan and on what terms and conditions,” he said.
There is no such thing as free lunch and relations between countries were guided by their national interests and based on a quid pro quo. There are issues that cannot be shrugged off, he said.
He said that Syria had the potential of becoming Afghanistan of the Middle East and warned against any misadventure by changing course disregarding the catastrophic experience in Afghanistan next door. It would be a mistake of monumental proportions if we allowed ourselves to be sucked into the web of regional power politics in the Middle East.
He said that the alarm bells first rang by reports late last month that a Muslim country was in talks with Pakistan for supply of anti-aircraft and anti tank rockets to Syrian rebels.
