PM flays Cameron's statement

ISLAMABAD Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani on Thursday repeated his resolution to convene All Parties Conference (APC) and take all the parties on board so that a unanimous strategy can be formulated for countering the terrorism and militancy prevailing in the country. He also condemned the statement of the British PM David Cameron, saying that such statements about the country would negatively affect her efforts in the war against terrorism. He was answering to a point of order of Raja Zafarul Haq of the PML-N, who stressed on the need for the revival of the terrorism policy to counter the growing threats in the country. Cameron, during his recent visit to India, had said that Pakistan should not be allowed to promote the export of terrorism. PM Gilani informed the house that the government had taken severe notice of that statement and the issue would be raised at the diplomatic level. He also stated that there was no use of reacting to the reports regarding the leakage of important documents to Wikileak as the US President, Barack Obama, had denied those reports himself. He further said that the Pakistani armed forces have suffered greater losses than the NATO and the allied forces fighting in Afghanistan, who have yet not been able to secure peace in the area. He also mentioned his telephonic talk with the PML-N leader, Mian Nawaz Sharif, saying that he had shown his reservations about the on-going the terrorist activities in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) and the increasing number of target killings in Karachi and Balochistan. PM Gilani stated that the eradication of terrorism is a responsibility of not only the present government but also the whole nation, as terrorism has had adverse effects on the countrys economy and her image to the world. We will do our home work first and devise a national policy by adopting unanimous strategy to counter terrorism, he added. Earlier, the PM also spoke on the floor of the house, after the Senate had unanimously passed The Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP) Bill, 2010. He called the programme transparent and without any loopholes. We distributed the forms of the programme to all the parliamentarians without any discrimination on affiliation basis and were trying to address some complaints about the programme, he informed. He said that the government was conducting a poverty survey all over the country and completion would result in a complete data of the deserving poor. He also informed the house that the government had signed a MoU with NAVTEC to train the poor children so that they are able to get jobs within the country and, possibly, abroad. Regarding the damage caused by the heavy rains and floods, especially in Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, he said that the NDMA has been alerted, and the relief goods have been despatched to the affected areas. While giving details about Wednesdays plane crash, the PM said that 78 dead bodies have been handed over to their relatives and DNA tests of the remaining bodies are being conducted.

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