ISLAMABAD, Aug 3: The government on Friday set a foreign policy debate in the National Assembly for Monday to focus on Pakistan-US ties in a move that seemed designed to demonstrate Islamabad’s unease at some latest developments and also deflect opposition attacks over both internal and external situations.

The move came at the end of a prolonged law and order debate wound up by Interior Minister Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao, who rejected charges mainly from religious parties that the government’s deadly military operations against militants, whether in the tribal areas or one at Lal Masjid last month, served only American interests.

Parliamentary Affairs Minister Sher Afgan Khan Niazi had first proposed that the house pass a resolution to condemn a recent suggestion by one prospective United States presidential candidate to send American troops into Pakistan to hunt down Al Qaeda terrorists and one by another to target Islam’s holiest sites in Makkah and Madina, after the issue was raised by some opposition members.

It was agreed by the two sides to draft a joint resolution, which did not come for some unexplained reasons.

But instead of that, apparently after consulting the foreign ministry, Mr Niazi came up with a motion towards the end of the sitting calling for a foreign policy debate that he said should focus on five subjects: ‘dirty’ statements by prospective US presidential candidates, the India-US nuclear deal, threats of anti-militant US military operations

inside Pakistan territory, Pakistan’s role as a front-line state in the war against terrorism and a recently passed US law containing ‘double-standards and unreasonable conditions’ for giving aid to Pakistan.

Speaker Amir Hussain Chaudhry set Monday for the debate, which he said could continue for two days, but dismissed a suggestion by Pukhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party chief Mahmood Khan Achakzai that a joint session of both the National Assembly and the Senate hold such a debate.

Mr Sherpao, completing a speech that he had to discontinue on Wednesday for lack of quorum due to a walkout by the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA), defended the anti-militant operations, particularly the commando-led assault early last month to clear the Lal Masjid and the adjoining Jamia Hafsa of militants.

But he avoided responding to oft-repeated opposition demands that the government explain why the Lal Masjid complex in the heart of the capital was allowed to become a base for armed militants and set up a high-level judicial commission to probe the affair.

However, in response to a call-attention notice from five members of the People’s Party Parliamentarians (PPP), the minister announced a belated grant of compensation of Rs100,000 each for 17 people killed and Rs50,000 each for more than 70 wounded in a suspected suicide bombing at a PPP reception camp set up near Islamabad district courts to welcome Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry.

On the demand of a PPP member from Islamabad, Nayyar Hussain Bokhari, Mr Sherpao said the government would consider compensation for losses suffered by businesses during a 13-day curfew in the G-6 sector because of the operation and a July 27 suicide bombing at the Abpara market.

Health Minister Mohammad Nasir Khan assured the house that free medical treatment would be provided to the wounded, including provision of best artificial limbs for those who had lost their own.

Opposition leader Maulana Fazlur Rehman voiced dissatisfaction with Mr Sherpao’s speech, accused the government of pushing the country towards war rather than peace and called for a review of its policies.

Mr Achakzai blamed the Lal Mosque affair on what he called a joint agenda pursued by the government and the militants and said people wanted to know the source of “factories producing suicide bombers”.

Earlier, the MMA almost blocked Mr Sherpao for the second time from completing his speech by staging a walkout that left the house without a quorum.

But the minister was able to speak after the speaker declared the house ‘in order’ when Mr Achakzai and Mr Bokhari persuaded the MMA members to come back.

CHEERS FOR HASHMI: There were desk-thumping cheers from opposition benches and some ruling party back benches after MMA parliamentary leader Liaquat Baloch and PPP chief whip Khurshid Ahmed Shah made brief remarks to welcome the Supreme Court order issued earlier in the day for the release of Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) parliamentary leader Makhdoom Javed Hashmi.