PESHAWAR
Expressing disappointment over the latest round of the Pak-US Strategic Dialogue, former federal minister and Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q) Secretary General Senator Mushahid Hussain Sayed on Sunday termed it “nothing but a futile exercise”.
Mushahid was addressing reporters in Peshawar, where he had travelled to attend the Tribal Workers Convention arranged by his party. Beside Mushahid, the convention was also addressed by PML-Q Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) President Engineer Amir Muqam, and party leaders Mushtaq Ghani and Shahabuddin Khan.
The party also distributed cash as compensation for the relatives of people who had fallen victim to acts of terrorism. Senator Mushahid expressed serious doubts and questioned whether Pakistan had made “any solid gains” from Washington’s promises regarding the Reconstruction Opportunity Zones (ROZ’s), assurances on the resolution of the Kashmir dispute, the Pak-US civilian nuclear accord and whether Islamabad had received the money under the coalition support funds.
Talking about Washington’s assurances of paying $2 billion to Islamabad in 2012, he said all such promises and assurances were for the future and there was nothing for certain at present. On the prime minister’s recent statement wherein he admitted that, ‘drone attacks weren’t allowed during the PML-N government’s terms in office’, Mushahid said, “The government has made a true confession for the first time”.
He went on to demand an immediate end to the drone attacks, saying that “the decision-making power rests with Pakistanis not the Americans”. Continuing his verbal barrage against the PPP-led government, the PML-Q leader said Islamabad had failed on all fronts, particularly in the war against terrorism, and there were huge contradictions in what the government claimed and eventually did.
