Islamabad decides to keep off Afghan meeting in Bonn

Pakistan will boycott the December 5 Bonn international conference on Afghanistan to protest the cross-border Nato attack that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers, the federal cabinet decided yesterday. The decision was taken by a cabinet meeting in Lahore, amid pubic anger in the country over Saturday's strike and growing demand for an end to alliance with the US in the war on terror. "The cabinet has unanimously agreed to boycott the Bonn conference and described the Nato strike as a violation of all terms and conditions we have with Nato," Information Minister Ashiq Firdous Awan told the BBC. "It's a clear-cut attack on Pakistan's sovereignty and integrity," the minister said. Strategy session The Bonn conference is to bring together Western and regional leaders to map out a strategy for Afghanistan after the planned withdrawal of foreign combat forces in 2014. Pakistan was to be represented at the meeting by Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar. During the cabinet meeting held at the Governor House in Lahore, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani suspended the agenda to discuss the November 26 raid on the Pakistani post in Mohmand area close to the border with Afghanistan. Gilani also said that he would summon a joint session of parliament to discuss the Nato attack and the memo scandal. The cabinet extended deepest condolences to the families of those who were killed in the cross-border strike, officials said. Khar briefed the cabinet about the incident and the diplomatic efforts being made to highlight the violation of Pakistan's territorial sovereignty. The cabinet agreed that unilateral actions like the Abbottabad operation, which killed Osma Bin Laden, and the cross-border attack were unacceptable.