ISLAMABAD: The opposition moved an adjournment motion in the Senate on Friday according to which the government had received $1.5 billion from a Muslim country to stabilise rupee against US dollar at the cost of the country’s foreign policy on Syria.
PPP Senator Farhatullah Babar, who has submitted the motion, said he had sought a discussion on the issue in the coming session of the upper house.
“The claim of national debt coming down by Rs800bn as a result of a rise in rupee’s value against dollar following the bailout is welcome but we need to be reassured that there is no quid pro quo and trade-off within a critical area of our foreign policy,” he said.
Finance Minister Ishaq Dar said on Wednesday that a Muslim country had given $1.5bn under the Pakistan Development Fund but it did not wish to be identified.
“The secrecy raises questions. We need to know when the fund was set up and for what purpose and what happened to the fund set up sometime ago by the name of Friends of Democratic Pakistan,” the senator said.
“We also need to know whether it is a grant, aid or loan and what are terms and conditions for it because there is no such thing as free lunch. Relations between countries are guided by their national interests and based on a quid pro quo. These issues cannot be ignored.”
Syria had the potential of becoming Afghanistan of the Middle East, he said and warned against any misadventure by changing the course (of the policy on Syria) while disregarding the catastrophic experience in Afghanistan.
“It will be a mistake of monumental proportions if we allow ourselves to be sucked into the web of regional power politics in the Middle East,” he said.
The PPP leader said alarm bells were initially rung by last month’s reports that a Muslim country was in talks with Pakistan for supply of anti-aircraft and anti-tank rockets to Syrian rebels.
He said doubts lingered on as the joint statement issued after the visit of a dignitary from the Middle East last month called for regime change in Syria while seeking “formation of a transitional governing body with full executive powers enabling it to take charge of the affairs of the country.”
He said the Geneva-1 communiqué had called for an end to violence and human rights abuses and the “launch of a Syrian-led political process leading to a transition that meets the legitimate aspirations of the Syrian people”.
“There is a sea of difference between a “political process leading to a transition” as envisaged in the Geneva communiqué and “formation of transitional governing body with full executive powers’ as sought by Prime Minister’s Adviser on Foreign Affairs Sartaz Aziz in the joint statement. There is an ominous ring to the latter,” the motion said.