The Pakistan government plans to revise its policies on key national and outstanding issues, including relations with the US, the war on terror and the Kashmir dispute, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani said on Sunday.
The government will revise the 'terms of engagement’ for these issues, including policies that were framed during the regime of former military ruler Pervez Musharraf, Gilani said during an interaction with a group of reporters at the State Guest House here.
Gilani mentioned in passing that the Kashmir dispute was among these issues but did not give details of how the government intended to revise its policies. He said the review would include key issues like Pakistan's role in the war on terror and the country's cooperation with the US and NATO.
The change in policy had become necessary in the aftermath of the cross-border NATO attack that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers on November 26, he remarked. "As the Pakistan People's Party-led government and the entire political and military leadership has considered this issue as an opportunity, we will revise all previous terms of engagement as part of the country's new strategy to fight terrorism," Gilani said.
"And after having the terms of engagement revised, we will make new terms of engagement with the US and NATO," he said while responding to several questions. Pakistan responded angrily to the NATO air strike by closing all routes used to transport supplies to American and allied forces in Afghanistan and asking the US to vacate the Shamsi airbase, reportedly used by CIA-operated drones, within 15 days.
Islamabad also decided the Bonn Conference on Afghanistan to protest the attack. Gilani said his government will use parliament to develop uniform policies on key national issues by taking all stakeholders on board.
Parliament is the best forum to frame national policies through debate and discussion, he noted. National issues like relations with the US and NATO, the Kashmir dispute and the nuclear programme have a direct bearing on Pakistan's sovereignty and security and will be debated in parliament to evolve national consensus, he said.
"We will formulate policies reflecting the aspirations of the people," he said.
Gilani said the objective behind boycotting the Bonn Conference was to devise a fresh and uniform policy to deal with national issues in future in the light of the challenges facing the country. Referring to the controversy over a secret memo sent to the US military in May, Gilani said his government had taken the right steps to handle this issue, including calling back Pakistan's former envoy to Washington, Husain Haqqani, getting his resignation and handing over the matter to a parliamentary committee to probe it thoroughly.
PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif had filed a petition in the Supreme Court on the ‘Memogate’ issue of his own free will, he said.
"It is Nawaz Sharif's basic right to go to court but frankly we don't know what he wants to achieve through his action," he added. Memogate was not a big issue but it had been "blown out of proportion", Gilani contended.
However, had democracy in Pakistan fully matured, there would have been no need to go the apex court as such issues could have been deliberated in parliament, he said. Responding to a question, he said democracy in Pakistan would have been strengthened and stabilised long ago if there had not been frequent military interventions.
Recalling Musharraf's decision to ‘bow’ to the US after the 9/11 attacks, Gilani said democracy in Pakistan was ‘no longer a one-man show'.
Pakistan’s nuclear assets were in safe hands under a comprehensive command and control system with the prime minister as the overall in-charge, he said.