Pakistan PM to call joint session of parliament to discuss NATO raid

Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani Tuesday said he will call a joint session of both houses of parliament to discuss the cross-border NATO air strike and the issue of a secret memorandum sent to the US military seeking help to prevent a possible military takeover in Pakistan.

Gilani made the remarks while chairing a special meeting of the federal cabinet held in Lahore this afternoon.

He said the joint session of Parliament will be summoned after he receives the recommendations of the parliamentary committee on national security on the NATO attack and the "Memogate" affair.

Pakistan responded angrily to the NATO air strike that killed 24 soldiers on Saturday by shutting all NATO supply routes and asking the US to vacate the Shamsi airbase, believed to be used by CIA-operated drones, within 15 days.

Gilani yesterday said that it would no longer be "business as usual" in Pakistan-US ties after the attack.

The country's former envoy to the US, Husain Haqqani, was recently asked to resign by Gilani to facilitate a transparent inquiry into the controversy of the secret memo made public by Pakistani-American businessman Mansoor Ijaz.

Gilani has asked the parliamentary panel on national security to probe both matters and give recommendations to the government. He extended his condolences to the families of the soldiers who were killed in Saturday’s incident in Mohmand tribal region, an official statement said.

Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar briefed the cabinet about the incident and the diplomatic efforts undertaken by Pakistan to highlight the violation of the country’s "territorial sovereignty" and of international law.

"The cabinet agreed that unilateral action like the Abbottabad incident and in Mohmand Agency was not acceptable," the statement said, referring to the US raid that killed Osama bin Laden in Abbottabad and the NATO air strike.