Islamabad, June 27: Expressing concern over President Pervez Musharraf's remarks hinting at reconsidering Pakistan's policy towards Israel, former premier Benazir Bhutto's Pakistan Peoples Party has said the move amounted to "bartering away" national interests to gain support for his personal rule.
The Pakistan Peoples Party is troubled over Musharraf's statement that he is going to open up to Israel, PPP spokesman said in a statement here today.

Even though informal military contacts with Israel existed since the days of General Zia ul Haq, the spokesman said Pakistan's foreign policy was to withhold recognition until the issue of the final status of Jerusalem was resolved and a settlement on the Golan heights was reached.

"Musharaf had held out the carrot of 'opening up' to Israel without even Israel withdrawing from the sale of sophisticated weaponry to India and without the US offering any tangible support to Pakistan", he said adding that such a move amounted to "bartering away national interests only to gain support for his personal rule."

Referring to the three billion dollar aid offered by the US to Musharraf, he said the us military's Central Command had calculated the loss to Pakistan as a result of operations against Taliban as ten billion dollars.
However, Musharaf was able to get only one billion dollars write off compared to ten billion for Egypt and Jordan when Iraq invaded Kuwait in 1990.

Bureau Report