PPP- led Pak govt to finally decide fate of suspended NATO supply lines

Islamabad, Apr 13(ANI): The Pakistan parliament's recommendations on reviewing ties with the United States has left the decision of deciding the fate of suspended NATO supply lines solely on the Pakistan People's Party-led government.

The new recommendations of the Parliamentary Committee on the National Security (PCNS) include several new demands such as an immediate end to US drone strikes and prohibiting the use of Pakistani airspace for transportation of arms and ammunition to Afghanistan.

The PCNS has accommodated most demands made by opposition parties, including the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) to achieve a hard-earned consensus, The Express Tribune reports.

It took the 13-member bipartisan, bicameral committee headed by Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) member Senator Raza Rabbani more than three weeks to prepare the revised recommendations after the previous draft was rejected by the PML-N and JUI-F last month.

Pakistan Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani has vowed to implement the recommendations in "letter and spirit."

"Our partnership cannot be at the cost of our sovereignty or territorial integrity," he said.

He added that democracy in Pakistan had crossed yet another milestone with parliamentary oversight of foreign and security policy which had remained the exclusive domain of the establishment in the past.

Gilani said US President Barack Obama had assured him at a recent meeting in South Korea that Washington would respect the outcome of Pakistan's parliamentary review and the country's sovereignty.

"The US president has given us a commitment and he knows the meaning of sovereignty," he added. (ANI)