Islamabad: A Pakistani minister has said the country should restore suspended Nato supply routes to Afghanistan with some conditions in the larger interest of the nation.
Gulam Ahmad Bilour, minister for railways, said in an interview published here yesterday that the nation was not in a position to invite US hostility.
Bilour belongs to the National Awami Party (ANP), a member of the country's ruling coalition led by the Pakistan People's Party (PPP). He has been under fire over the deteriorating state of the railways.
"The ANP wants Nato supplies to be restored in the best interest of the country as we are not in a position to invite the wrath of the US," Bilour was quoted as saying.
The minister has urged other partners of the ruling party to back the reopening of the supply lines, an issue now before the parliament.
The members of the National Assembly and the Senate, meeting in a joint session, are to resume a debate tomorrow on a raft of recommendations on the revised terms of engagement with the US, which a parliamentary committee on national security submitted last week.
The 40-point report by the committee contains guidelines for the country's foreign policy. It also suggests steps to be taken before restoring the four-month closure of the Nato supply lines through Pakistan's territory.
It recommends that Islamabad demand an unconditional apology by the US over a deadly air strike in November which killed two dozen Pakistani soldiers, besides pressing for the cessation of drone attacks on the country's territory.
Taxes
The report also suggests levying of taxes on shipments going to Afghanistan and the movement of 50 per cent of the supplies by the Pakistan railway from the Karachi harbour.
Former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, president of the main opposition Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N), told reporters yesterday that his party would discuss the issue today.
PML-N was part of the parliamentary committee which formulated the recommendations, but criticised some portions of the report after it was presented to the parliament, on the grounds that its representative was kept out of the loop while drafting of the report.
Religious parties, particularly a group called Ddifa-e-Pakistan Council, have been holding protest rallies against the lifting of the Nato supplies blockade. The Jamaat-e-Islami party has planned a large rally in front of the parliament on Tuesday.
