Haqqani says parliament to decide US aid bill

Pakistan's ambassador to the United States Hussain Haqqani said in an interview aired Sunday that the Parliament in Islamabad would take a decision on the recently passed $7.5 billion aid measure, known as Kerry-Lugar bill.
"Pakistanis are very mindful of sovereignty. We are a very proud nation. And so some of the language in the bill has offended a lot of people because they think it is intrusive," he told CNN channel's GPS program as Pakistani elected representatives in Senate and the National Assembly weighed in on conditions and provisions of the legislation.
In answer to a question relating to Pakistan military's expression of concern over some provisions of the bill with regard to national security, Haqqani said the military leadership has made it clear that Parliament is the right forum for a debate on the legislation, which is yet be signed into law by the US President.
"In the end, the military for the first time is very clear that sovereignty of the Parliament has to be ensured and the correct place for such a debate is the Parliament." The ambassador said some people in Pakistan belonging to the former government would like to see a confrontation between the civilian and military institutions but observed currently the military and civilian institutions respect each other.
"But I don't think there are going to be any coups in Pakistan. I think the Pakistani military respects the political process and Pakistan's elected politicians - President (Asif Ali) Zardari, Prime Minister (Yousaf Raza) Gilani and all of their appointees in the government - respect the Pakistani military and respect their opinions. "But the decisions are going to be taken by Pakistan's Parliament," he added.
Continuing, the envoy also pointed out the example of ongoing debate on differences of opinion between the US political and military leaders in adopting a strategy to address the declining situation in Afghanistan. Similarly, he said, during the Iraq war a few years back, the then chairman US joints chiefs of staff and the then U.S. secretary of defence had differences.