Pakistan to boycott Bonn Conference on Afghanistan

Lahore: Pakistan today decided to boycott the upcoming crucial Bonn Conference on Afghanistan to protest a cross-border NATO air strike that killed 24 soldiers, ratcheting up tensions between Islamabad and Washington. The decision to stay away from the important conference to be held in the German city on 5 December was taken at a three-hour special meeting of the cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani at the Governor House in Lahore this afternoon, officials told PTI. The cabinet endorsed the decision made by the Defence Committee of the Cabinet following Saturday’s air strike to close all NATO supply routes and to ask the US to vacate Shamsi airbase, believed to be used by CIA-operated drones, within 15 days. [caption id=“attachment_143545” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“Gilani said he would call a joint session of both Houses of Parliament to discuss the NATO attack.”]  [/caption] Pakistan has responded angrily to the attack by NATO aircraft on two military border posts, saying the air strike was launched without any provocation. The Pakistan Army has said a total of 72 soldiers have died in NATO attacks over the past three years. Gilani said yesterday that it would no longer be “business as usual” in Pakistan-US ties after the latest attack. Gilani was quoted by TV news channels as telling today’s cabinet meeting that life is precious for everyone and the people of Pakistan want to live with honour and dignity. At this “difficult juncture for national security”, the people will back the government in tackling security challenges, he reportedly said. The premier pledged to protect Pakistan’s frontiers at all costs. Gilani said he would call a joint session of both Houses of Parliament to discuss the NATO attack and the issue of a secret memorandum sent to the US military seeking help to prevent a possible military takeover in Pakistan. Gilani said the joint session of Parliament will be summoned after he receives the parliamentary committee on national security’s recommendations on the NATO attack and the ‘memogate’ affair. Gilani extended his condolences to families of the soldiers who were killed in the NATO air strike in Mohmand tribal region. Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar briefed the cabinet about the incident and diplomatic efforts undertaken by Pakistan to highlight the violation of international law and the country’s “territorial sovereignty”. “The cabinet agreed that unilateral action like the Abbottabad incident and (last Saturday’s incident) in Mohmand Agency was not acceptable,” an official statement said, referring to the US raid that killed Osama bin Laden in Abbottabad on 2 May and the NATO air strike. Even as the cabinet meeting was underway in Lahore, Pakistan Army chief Gen Ashfaq Parvez Kayani provided a background briefing on the NATO air strike at the General Headquarters in Rawalpindi to news anchors and analysts. Gilani has asked the parliamentary panel on national security to probe both the ‘memogate’ controversy and the NATO air strike and give recommendations to the government. PTI