Air corridor for Nato was never closed, says PM

ISLAMABAD - The air corridor for Nato supplies had never been closed, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani has said taking a plea that the cabinet had decided to suspend supplies for the US-led troops in Afghanistan through the land route only.

By Afzal Khan

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Published: Tue 28 Feb 2012, 12:14 AM

Last updated: Tue 7 Apr 2015, 12:14 PM

“The Defence Committee of the Cabinet had taken a decision to suspend supplies for Nato through land route and get the Shamsi airbase vacated. We are bound by that,” he told a group of reporters at the Prime Minister’s House.

Cameron Munter, the US Ambassador, had said recently that the Nato supplies continued to fly into Afghanistan despite closure of the border after the death of 24 soldiers in the air strike on Salala check-post on November 26. Defence Minister Chaudhry Ahmad Mukhtar had said subsequently the air route had been opened for food items on humanitarian grounds and that it was a temporary arrangement.

Questions were raised by legislators who wanted to know the authority who had passed such orders bypassing the parliament and the Parliamentary Committee on National Security.

The prime minister said the parliamentary committee had prepared recommendations on new terms of engagement with the United States, which would be put before a joint session of parliament after the Senate elections.

news@khaleejtimes.com


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