It is heartening to note that Sri Lanka has decided to buy J. F. Thunder planes from Pakistan despite tremendous pressure from India not to purchase them. This deal is going to boost our aeroplane manufacturing industry and many other smaller countries of the world would follow suit by buying Pakistan-manufactured war planes. Ties with Colombo need to be bolstered further. Pakistan can draw on the experience of Sri Lanka in its fight against the terrorists . It took her 29 years to see the back of the last terrorist.
Why should there be an in- camera session of National Assembly on Iran and Saudi Arabia imbroglio? What is a parliament for? Parliament comprises the elected representatives of the people. It should never keep contents of its debates secret from the people. Nothing should be hidden from the public. Decisions on this issue should never be confined within the fore-walls of the Foreign Office. Open discussion in parliament in the matter would enable the people to know what exactly are their representatives up to? Do they properly express their sentiments or does any political expediency come in their way to express what the common man of this country thinks on this issue? Experience of hindsight reveals that in nine out of ten times, the objective behind holding in camera sessions is to hide the truth from the man in the street and it is demanded only by those people who want to run with the hare and hunt with the hounds. Let us be frank. Pakistan cannot, and should not, discriminate between Riyadh and Tehran. If one is its immediate neighbour, the other houses the House of Allah and other places sacred to us. It is, no doubt, a very tight-rope walking for us. Our valiant armed forces are made up of Muslims belonging to every sect and they have always rendered yeoman service whenever any enemy country cast an evil on their land. We should never ever involve them in the mutually internecine destructive war of attrition between Iran and Saudi Arabia who follow sects diametrically opposed to each other. Islamabad can, however, play an intermediary role in defusing tension between them.