The Senate has suggested to the government to remodel its foreign policy in the wake of emerging coldness in Pakistan-Afghanistan relations, mounting problems for expatriates and Indian rise as a regional strategic power by the United States patronage.
During a debate on Thursday, Pakistan Muslim League (PML) Secretary General Senator Mushahid Hussain listed these three factors as major challenges to the country's foreign policy.
For him, a tactful handling of these issues was the best line of action Pakistan's foreign policy managers could adopt to pull the country out of the trouble.
In Mushahid's view, other than these three burning issues every thing was sailing smoothly as he said Pakistan had gathered enough credibility in the community of nations during past few years.
Elaborating his points, Mushahid said Pakistan's reaction to the recent allegations by both the Washington and the Kabul about an infiltration into Afghanistan from its soil was not up to the mark.
"I think Pakistan should tell the US that a deteriorating law and order situation in Afghanistan was its own fault and Islamabad can never be blamed for it," the PML senator said.
And moreover, Mushahid added, the trouble in Pakistan's north western Waziristan region was due to Afghanistan.
Another area wherein Pakistan's foreign policy designers should be more vigilant was the increasing problems of expatriates, Mushahid told the Upper House.
He referred to the recent killing of Aamir Cheema and resented to, what he said, a lacklustre response of the country over it.
Pakistan should take stand if any out of its 7.7 million citizens living in various countries and contributing to the country's economy in the form of remittances were hurt, he opined.
Thirdly, the ruling party secretary general also had reservations over the recent Washington-New Delhi deal to cooperate in the field of civilian nuclear technology.
He came up with his own perception on the deal and said it was a deliberate move on part of the United States to raise India as a regional strategic power, primarily to counter China.
For Mushahid it was also a challenge for Pakistan's foreign policy-makers but he did not come up with any proposal to counter this.
Earlier, several opposition senators resented what they called Pakistan's defensive stance on a number of foreign policy issues like Iraq, Kashmir and lately on a possible US strike on Iran.
Pakistan Peoples Party Parliamentarians' Latif Khosa said that the US was now throwing Pakistan in the dustbin like a used tissue paper after using it on its so-called war on terror.
He suspected signs indicated that Pakistan's soil would once again be used against Iran and observed that the establishment of cantonments in Balochistan province was the part of the great game. His party colleague Mian Raza Rabbani was critical of what he saw one-sided and worthless Confidence Building Measures (CBMs) with India.
For Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal's Professor Ibrahim Khan the focus in the Pakistan's foreign policy should be on better and cordial relations with Muslim countries.
The House will resume the debate when it meets again on Friday.
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