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| India-Pakistan |
| Govt under fire in NA over Swat military operation |
| 2009-05-14 |
| Differences emerged in the National Assembly on Wednesday over the Swat military operation, as legislators from the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) criticised the government for not consulting the parliament before launching the offensive. Lawmakers from the ruling Pakistan People's Party (PPP) said the government had no other option after the failure of the peace deal. Both the parties expressed their concerns over the problems of the internally displaced persons (IDPs) and urged Pakistanis to help them. In a hard-hitting speech, PML-N's Khawaja Asif accused the government of launching the military operation on the US dictate "in order to earn dollars" and insisted the government should try a negotiated settlement of the dispute. "The government is trying to fool us. They sought the approval of the parliament for the Nizam-e-Adl Regulation when it was not needed, but completely ignored it for the crucial decision of launching the military operation. The parliament has become irrelevant," he said. The PML-N leader said the government had not called an all-parties conference before the move because it had already decided to launch a military operation. |
| Posted by:Fred |