Wednesday, October 26 2005 15:34 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Islamabad: Pakistan's opposition party PML-N has termed as a 'very serious' security issue the Government taking North Atlantic Treaty Organisation's (NATO) help to rehabilitate quake-hit areas and questioned the army's delayed response to the calamity.

"We have opened the door for foreign forces without taking the Parliament or even the cabinet into confidence. What will we do if tomorrow we have to fight a war with India or any other country? Will we call NATO forces again to help us in wars," PML-N leader Chaudhary Nisar Ali Khan said in the National Assembly yesterday (Oct 25, 2005).

Recalling the recent speech made in the National Assembly by Education Minister and former ISI Chief, Javed Ashraf Qazi, recently that army had not been cut out for disaster relief activities, Khan said, "If army is not cut out for the job, then how NATO forces are cut out for the same." Defending the decision to call NATO forces, Science and Technology Minister Chaudhry Nauraiz Shakoor said they were coming only to assist in relief operations.

Attacking the army for delaying response to the calamity, he said, "You (army) take only two hours to capture the whole country. It takes you minutes to launch a military operation. Then why the help reached 72 hours late to the people of affected areas."

He also questioned the Government's decision to appoint a military man as the head of the newly-established rehabilitation authority.

"We have a relief commissioner from the military and now another General has been made rehabilitation commissioner. Who will hold their accountability when the NAB (National Accountability Bureau) Chief is also from the military," he was quoted as saying by daily 'Dawn'.