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PPP concerned over chemical inspectors' visit

By B. Muralidhar Reddy

ISLAMABAD APRIL 25. The Pakistan People's Party (PPP) has expressed `grave concern' over the coming visit of chemical inspectors to Pakistan. The team from the office of the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) would visit Karachi on April 29.

In a statement Raza Rabbani, Deputy Secretary-General and Leader of the Parliamentary Party in the Senate of the PPP, said that "it appears that at the hands of the PML(Q) Government the political and economic sovereignty is being surrendered. In the absence of the remotest or any concrete evidence on the question of chemical weapons this inspection is uncalled for and unwarranted.''

The Jamali Government has termed the visit of inspectors as `routine' and said they have undertaken 1,400 such inspections in different countries that are signatory to the Convention.

Mr. Rabbani said the Government should stand warned of the timing of the inspection, close on the heels of the Iraqi invasion and sanctions on KRL. He said this, coupled with the propaganda against Pakistan in recent months in the western media on terrorism and the nuclear question, raises legitimate apprehensions in the minds of the Pakistanis.

``In this regard, the statement of the Foreign Office is apologetic and an eyewash. It fails to answer a number of questions. It is a cover-up for the total failure of the foreign policy of the Government.

He alleged that the Government talks of giving importance to Parliament but such critical matters of national security where U.N. inspectors are being permitted was not raised in the Senate or the National Assembly."

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