Puppets On a String

The President to-be, FM Shah Mahmud Qureshi, PM Yusuf Raza Gilani, House Leader in Senate Raza Rabbani they are all making suitable noises to placate the Pakistanis and please the Chief Pupeteer.

Note these gems:

After fiery debates over Wednesday’s pre-dawn helicopter-borne raid that reportedly killed at least 20 people in a village in South Waziristan agency, the demand was made in a resolution passed unanimously by the National Assembly and the Senate separately that also wanted the government to tell the International Security Assistance Force (Isaf) in Afghanistan that such violations were “bound to force fundamental changes of foreign polic” by ya key ally in the so-called war on terrorism.

“The house calls upon the government of Pakistan to take all necessary measures to protect the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the country and repel such attacks in the future with full force,” the resolution said about what Pakistan says was the coalition forces’ first ground assault into the area after three helicopters brought troops to a village near the well-known militant stronghold of Angoor Adda to target some houses.

Both Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi in the National Assembly and leader of house Raza Rabbani in the Senate said in their prepared remarks before tabling the resolution in their respective chambers that the attacks “constitutes a serious escalation in the series of actions by the Isaf/coalition forces on Pakistani territory”.

PPP co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari, who seems assured of being elected as the country’s president by a parliamentary electoral college on Saturday, joined the chorus with a strong statement condemning what he called an “outrageous and unacceptable violation of the territorial integrity of the country” and calling for a thorough investigation and adoption of “foolproof measures so that such incidents do not occur in the future”.

We have read such statements in the past also.

If they cared, if they really cared they should have passed a simple resolution: The House (& the Senate) authorises and orders the Pakistan Army to engage with full force any violations/violators of Pakistan's territorial integrity with immediate effect.


But such simple directives needs men of conscience and spine.