Govt’s foreign policy in tatters: PPP

ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Sunday said the government’s foreign policy was in tatters and demanded the summoning of the meetings of the foreign affairs committee of both the houses of the Parliament to take up the issue of conflicting statements of cabinet ministers on the foreign policy, especially on Kashmir.

Parliamentary Leader of the Pakistan People’s Party in Senate Sherry Rehman raised the questions on the statement of Minister for Human Rights Dr Shireen Mazari and stated that her critique poses a strong question mark on the PTI government’s ability to forge any policy, because now disunity is pointing to policy failures that the opposition has been raising.

Sherry Rehman said there is a policy confusion in the frontline ranks at the Foreign Office and cabinet. “For a ranking minister to publicly question policy is not the norm, and the rifts in the PTI ranks have now become faultlines that are having an impact on the clarity and strategic force of our policy,” she said.

The Pakistan People’s Party leader asked how can a government with no cohesion inside its own cabinet instil confidence in Pakistan’s policies abroad?

Senator Mustafa Nawaz Khokhar, spokesman for the PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, said the minister for human rights has admitted that the country's foreign policy is limited to statements, speeches and Twitter.

Khokhar said that the failure of raising the Kashmir issue is not only a failure of Foreign Office but also of the Prime Minister Imran Khan.

He said the nation and the opposition already know that the government has totally and utterly failed in every field but now the failure is also being exposed by the government itself.

The Pakistan People’s Party Secretary General Syed Nayyar Hussain Bokhari also demanded the summoning of the meetings of the foreign affairs committees of both the houses of the Parliament on the failure of the government on Kashmir as admitted by the cabinet member.

He said the foreign minister should tell the foreign affairs committees of both the houses of the Parliament about the reasons of failure of the government’s foreign policy especially on Kashmir.

He said the Pakistan People’s Party in its tenure highlighted the Kashmir issue at every forum in the world.