Dealings with Pak: BJP to corner PM in Parliament

Varanasi, Apr 26: BJP today said it will corner Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in Parliament session starting tomorrow over UPA government's ''secretive dealings'' with Pakistan.''We will proactively raise the issue on the floor of Parliament from tomorrow and ask the Prime Minister to come clear on the government's secretive parleys with Islamabad,'' former BJP president and ex-deputy prime minister L K Advani said while addressing an election rally at Town Hall ground here.

Mr Advani further said, ''While the PM will be cornered on the issue in Parliament, the BJP will also make it a crunch poll issue in the ongoing assembly elections in UP.

''BJP has always made public its dealings with neighbouring nations, especially Pakistan. We did it during Agra summit in 2001 with Pakistan President Parvez Musharraf and when he told us to treat terrorism in Jammu and Kashmir as freedom struggle we refused to agree with him following which he returned to Pakistan in a huff,'' Mr Advani recounted.

''But the same unwavering commitment to national interest three years later served the genesis of a joint statement made by our Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee and General Musharraf at Islamabad, where the latter reassured that he will not permit any territory under Pakistan's control to be used to support terrorism in any manner,''he said.

Though the Pakistan president did not keep his words, but the party's rock solid commitment to nationalism helped the country win a diplomatic war against the hostile neighbour, Mr Advani claimed.

''Now the time has come when the present PM Manmohan Singh also come out open on his government's dealings with Pakistan on the floor of parliament,'' he added.

UNI