Pak govt can’t reopen NATO supply routes in defiance of Parliament diktat: Qureshi

Lahore - With the pressure building up on Pakistan to reopen NATO supply routes, and a decision pending before the Cabinet’s Defence Committee (DCC), Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) Vice Chairman Shah Mahmood Qureshi has asked whether a policy unanimously approved by the Parliament can be overruled by the executive.

Qureshi said the Parliament, while approving the policy review of the U.S. and the NATO supply route had demanded an unconditional apology and a stop to drone attacks. He asked what was being done to ensure this.

The Express Tribune further quoted him, as stressing that President Asif Ali Zardari must attend the NATO conference in Chicago later this month. Pakistan’s presence in the moot hinges on it reopening the NATO supply route.

Chiding the government for its shortsightedness, Qureshi asked whether the government did not foresee that closing the routes would violate international conventions, or create problems for Pakistan?

Qureshi said that even Pakistan’s Ambassador to the United States, Sherry Rehman, had tried to broker an apology from Washington, but that fell through after Islamabad took too long to act. He also asked who was the real Pakistan envoy in the U.S., as it seemed that former envoy Husain Haqqani was still in control since Zardari favoured him.

On the question of whether Pakistan should participate in the NATO Summit in Chicago, he said Parliament, not the government, should give its decision, as it was a matter of national sovereignty and territorial integrity.

He said the DCC should not be allowed to take the decision to reopen the NATO supply routes.