'Can't end poverty with tanks'

Even as his government continued to insist that India had not conducted surgical strikes across the Line of Control (LoC), Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif hit out at India for its 'aggression'.

However, his speech to a joint session of the Pakistan parliament was blunted by a scathing attack by the opposition on his government's foreign policy foibles.

"They want us to compete with them to end poverty. They should realize that poverty will not end if tanks are being driven through farmlands," Sharif said as he attempted to respond to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's taunt asking Pakistan to battle India on who can eradicate poverty and illiteracy first.

He also maintained to the joint session his government's line that the Indian military had not crossed the LoC and had not conducted any strikes.

The joint session of Pakistan's Senate and National Assembly had been called to paint a picture of political unity. That hope was dashed by the boycott of the session by the Imran Khan-led Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI).

Sharif's speech did little to stave off a further erosion of the image of political unity. Opposition leader Syed Khurshid Shah, of the PPP, lashed out at the Sharif government's diplomatic failures. "India openly says they are going to isolate Pakistan. We have to ask ourselves why our foreign policy is so weak, why Pakistan feels isolated in the international arena. The Saarc Summit is an example," he said.

"Five countries refused to attend the summit. We should have anticipated and countered this. Also, two of the countries that pulled out were Muslim countries. Afghanistan and Bangladesh continue to grow further apart from us," Shah added.

As tension over the strikes persists, Modi is understood to have cautioned his Cabinet colleagues against creating a hysteria.

During the Cabinet meeting yesterday, he is understood to have told his ministerial colleagues that only authorised people should speak on the issue of surgical strikes and one should avoid speaking out of turn, sources said.

His word of caution came as Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and a Congress leader of Mumbai Sanjay Nirupam had asked the government to release the proof of the surgical strikes to counter the 'Pakistani propaganda' against the operation.

The Indian army yesterday handed over to the government video clips of the strikes, a federal minister said. Now it is up to Modi whether to make the video public, reports said.

On the intervening night of last Wednesday-Thursday, Indian army's special personnel had carried out the strikes targeting seven to eight terror launch pads in Pakistan- occupied territory. The army said "significant casualties" had been caused in the strikes seen as retaliation for the September 18 attack by Pakistan-based terror group Jaish-e-Mohammed on an army camp in Jammu and Kashmir's Uri last month in which 19 Indian soldiers were killed.