‘Pentagon financed Western media to destabilise Arab world’
ISLAMABAD: Foreign Secretary Salman Bashir on Saturday told the Senate Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs that Pentagon injected $130 million in Western media to destabilise the Arab countries and US is supporting opposition in these countries as well.
The meeting of the Senate committee was held here at the Parliament House with its chairman Salim Saifullah in the chair. The meeting was attended by Senator Khursheed Ahmed, Senator Jan Jamali and other officials.
Salman Bashir while briefing the Senate committee on the Middle East situation and the evacuation of Pakistanis from troubled areas of Libya and Bahrain, told the committee that Pakistan has good relations with Arab countries and the situation there is a matter of concern. He said the crisis in the Arab world has also caused a split among the Muslim countries.
“We believe that foreign force is not a solution and military action extremely dangerous notion,” Salman Bashir said. He added that whenever such a situation is created the people should decide the future.
He said the main reason of crisis in the Arab world is corruption, unemployment, police abuse and ban on political parties.
The foreign secretary said that the crises in the Middle East are likely to worsen further. He said that the situation in Libya is different from other Arab countries as Col Qaddafi is not liked by many world leaders and this could be the reason for action against him.
Salman Bashir told that the attack on Libya was in accordance with the UN resolution.
He further told the committee that currently in Bahrain there are 63,000 Pakistanis out of which 5,000 have returned and reportedly five Pakistanis have lost their lives. He said that a task force has been formed to evacuate Pakistanis residing there.
Chairman of the committee Saleem Saifullah said that Pakistan suffered a major loss by releasing Raymond Davis. He said that Davis killed two innocent citizens of Pakistan and in return the government let him go scot-free. He said the facts leading to release of Raymond Davis should be presented before the committee.
The committee also condemned the US drone attack on innocent tribesmen in Dattakhel in North Waziristan.
SANA adds: The Senate committee showed concern over the silence of OIC during the present crisis situation in the Muslim countries of Middle East and North Africa.
Khurshid Ahmed and Jan Muhammad Jamali said that the OIC failed to solve the issues of Libya and other countries.
They also condemned Nato action against Libya and asked the Pakistani government to raise voice against it.
Salman Bashir said the Afghan crisis is unlikely to be resolved in near future as every effort of the international community to bring peace has so far been failed.
The committee said the Middle East crisis would further raise the oil prices and its impact would also be felt in Pakistan.
Source: The News
Date:3/27/2011
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