Pak parliamentary panel finalises new 'terms of engagement' with US

A Pakistani parliamentary panel has finalised a draft of recommendations for new "terms of engagement" with the US and NATO as part of the Islamabad's efforts to revamp its troubled relations with Washington.

Raza Rabbani, the head of the Parliamentary Committee on National Security, said the panel had finalised a draft of its recommendations for the new "terms of engagement" with the US in view of the cross-border NATO air strike and the current security situation in Pakistan.

"The committee has almost given the final shape to its recommendations (for reviewing ties with the US)," he told reporters after a meeting of the parliamentary panel.

Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani had recently tasked the committee to frame recommendation for the new terms of engagement after Pakistan-US ties were hit by a string of crises ranging from the American raid that killed Osama bin Laden in May to the NATO air strike that left 24 Pakistani soldiers dead in November.

The parliamentary panel's recommendations will be debated at a joint session of the two houses of parliament and the government will then frame a new policy for ties with the US and NATO.

Rabbani said the Finance Minister will attend a meeting of the committee tomorrow to present his views and respond to questions while the Foreign and Defence Secretaries will be invited to attend another meeting next Tuesday to give their inputs.

"If necessary, their viewpoints will be incorporated in the final recommendations," he said.

The final recommendations will be sent to the Prime Minister so that they can be presented in the proposed joint session of parliament.

Rabbani said all the recommendations of the panel had been finalized by consensus.

"We carefully discussed 63 recommendations from our own committee, a recent conference of Pakistani envoys and the Defence Ministry of Defence, and the overall international situation," Rabbani said.

In a separate development, Pakistan's Ambassador-designate to the US, Sherry Rehman, called on Prime Minister Gilani today and discussed matters pertaining to her diplomatic assignment.

Rehman will leave for the US soon to assume her assignment there, said a statement from the premier’s office.

She sought guidance from the premier, who said "she should espouse the cause of Pakistan's diplomatic interests in the US keeping in view the recommendations of the Parliamentary Committee on National Security to be adopted by the parliament."

Gilani expressed his full confidence in Rehman and said she would prove herself worthy of the challenging assignment.