By IANS,
Islamabad : Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani Sunday telephonically discussed with different political parties the situation arising out of US accusing Pakistan of supporting Haqqani network.
The Nation reported that Gilani called up the leaders of political parties and discussed the current situation.
Gilani spoke to Sheikh Rasheed of the Awami Muslim League, Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain of Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid, Nawaz Sharif of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz and Altaf Hussain of the Muttahid Quami Movement, said sources.
Ties between Washington and Islamabad have been strained after the May 2 killing of Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden in Abbottabad.
It dipped further when the chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Mike Mullen, Thursday accused the Pakistani government of supporting the Al Qaeda-linked Haqqani network.
Mullen called the Haqqani network a “veritable arm” of Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), the country’s spy agency, as he testified before the Senate Armed Services Committee on the US strategy in Afghanistan and Iraq.
He said the ISI-supported Haqqani network was behind recent attacks in Afghanistan including the Sep 11 truck bomb attack and the Sep 13 assault on the US embassy in Kabul.
Mullen said the Pakistani government’s link to the extremist group would undermine the already troubled US-Pakistani relationship as well as the US-led counterterrorism campaign in Afghanistan.
Pakistan, however, dismissed US accusations that the ISI is using the Haqqani network for a proxy war in neighbouring Afghanistan.