Decision to re-open NATO supply line should be practical not emotional one: Editorial

Islamabad, Apr 19 (ANI): A final decision to re-open NATO supply routes that have been shut since the deadly November 26 airstrike, should be a practical and not an emotional one, an editorial in a Pakistan daily has said.

The Express Tribune editorial said the Pakistan Government knows that re- opening NATO supply routes is a prudent measure but "the rest of Pakistani polity is too fearful of its public ramifications or too frozen in its ideological obsessions to make the right decision."

It cited a report, as saying that Defence Minister Chaudhry Ahmed Mukhtar has expressed his willingness to re-open the NATO supply lines, but US Ambassador Cameron Munter and government officials are still holding meetings on the issue.

It said that though the executive is taking up the issue after the Pakistan parliament had gave its recommendations on re-engagement on Pak-US ties, it has deferred taking any decision on the subject.

The editorial called on the government to "convince the public that the opposition parties are complicit in the final decision since they opted for political point-scoring rather than resolving the conflict." (ANI)