Pakistan to Retaliate Against US Call for Poll Probe

Pakistan will table its own resolution to respond to US House of Representatives' resolution earlier this week, deputy Prime Minister Ishaq Dar told the National Assembly on Thursday.

"The draft is ready, and we have taken notice of the US resolution and will surely respond," Dar, who is also the country’s Foreign Minister, was quoted as saying by Express Tribune.

The US House resolution calls for a "thorough and independent investigation" into interference claims in the 8 February vote, which witnessed independents backed by jailed ex-Prime Minister Imran Khan winning the largest share of seats.

However, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), headed by former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, emerged as the single largest party, enabling it to form a government with support from Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), the second-largest party in the National Assembly.

The US resolution calls upon President Joe Biden to cooperate with Pakistan in "upholding democracy, human rights, and the rule of law".

"The near-unanimous passage of this resolution sends a clear message to the government of Pakistan that the United States stands with the people of Pakistan in their pursuit of democracy, free and fair elections, and respect for individual freedoms and human rights," the resolution reads.

In the meantime, Khan, the founder of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) has claimed that the parliamentary no-confidence vote that led to the toppling of his government in April 2022 had been backed by the Biden administration, which was unhappy with Islamabad's independent foreign policy.

Khan has been in jail since last August in a slew of cases, all of which he claims are politically motivated.

US Resolution 'Neither Constructive nor Objective': Pakistan's Foreign Office

Meanwhile, in the statement on Wednesday, Pakistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) described the US resolution as being "neither constructive nor objective".

"Pakistan has taken note of the passage of the House Resolution 901 by the U.S. House of Representatives on June 25. We believe that the timing and context of this particular resolution does not align well with the positive dynamics of our bilateral ties, and stems from an incomplete understanding of the political situation and electoral process in Pakistan," the state's Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mumtaz Zahra Baloch stressed.

Baloch claimed that Islamabad backed a "constructive dialogue and engagement based on mutual respect and understanding".

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