Pak minister advocates ‘tit for tat’ response to US ’strip-search’ laws

ISLAMABAD - Pakistan Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Malik Ammad has criticised the United States for including the country’s name on the list of nations whose citizens have to undergo physical frisking at American airports, and asked the government to adopt a ‘tit for tat’ attitude over the issue.

Addressing the Senate, Ammad said American nationals should be treated exactly the way Pakistanis are being treated at US airports, The Daily Times reports.

Meanwhile, Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi, in a written reply to the House, said that Islamabad is in consultations with Washington over the screening issue, and expressed the hope that the matter would be resolved soon.

Pakistan’s name is in the list of 14 countries, whose citizens have to go for full body screening as part of America”s new stringent air security measures under the new US Transportation Security Administration rules.

All citizens of Pakistan, Afghanistan, Algeria, Lebanon, Libya, Iraq, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, Somalia and Yemen must receive a pat down and an extra check of their carry-on bags before boarding a plane bound for the US. (ANI)