• Formation of parliamentary national security committee urged
ISLAMABAD:
The country’s two major opposition parties — the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz
(PML-N) and Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) — have again asked the government to
brief parliament on the current situation in Afghanistan, come up with a policy
statement and develop a national consensus to deal with the possible
consequences the nation can face after the establishment of Taliban rule in the
war-torn country.
The
leaders of the two parties, while talking to Media, regretted that they had
been demanding the sessions of the National Assembly and the Senate or a joint
sitting of the two houses of parliament for the last couple of months, but so
far the government had not given any serious thought to their demand.
The
PPP has already convened an extraordinary meeting of its Central Executive
Committee (CEC) at Bilawal House in Karachi on Monday (today) to discuss the
situation in Afghanistan and formulate the party’s point of view on it.
Talking
to Media,
PPP secretary general Farhatullah Babar said the party had convened the CEC
meeting a couple of days ago and now the situation in Afghanistan had entirely
changed after reports that President Ashraf Ghani had fled the country. He said
the party’s formal position and statement on the situation would come out after
the CEC meeting on Monday.
Mr
Babar was of the view that they could not debate the Doha Agreement and now
they were required to discuss “what next”. He said the party would hold a
thorough and an open debate on the issue in the CEC meeting which would also be
attended by former president Asif Ali Zardari via video link.
Earlier,
in a statement, PPP Senator Raza Rabbani said the situation in Afghanistan was
maturing on an hour-to-hour basis and Pakistan would have to take far-reaching
decisions that would require a national consensus, but the opposition had not
been taken into confidence.
At
this critical time, he said, the Senate and the National Assembly, separately,
needed to be in session and briefed by the government on a daily basis. He
suggested that a joint sitting of parliament should elect a parliamentary
committee on national security having equal membership of the opposition and
treasury members to formulate a future plan of action.
Mr
Rabbani, who had also served as the Senate chairman, said the committee should
be tasked with discussing “the Afghan situation and its regional consequences,
the question of recognition of Taliban government in Kabul, the escalation of
the intra-Afghan conflict into a civil war and its impact on Pakistan’s
internal security, the policy Pakistan needs to adopt in order to contain
religious extremism and terrorism within, Pakistan’s policy with reference to
internally displaced persons in the eventuality of a civil war in Afghanistan
and to discuss the diplomatic initiatives required to stop the world from
pointing a finger at Pakistan”.
Meanwhile,
a senior PPP member and party office-bearer, while talking to Media,
said the party believed that the proceedings of the proposed joint sitting of
parliament should not be held in-camera so that the nation could see and
analyse the positions taken by various parties. He said the nation should know
as to which were the parties celebrating Taliban takeover of Kabul as there
were reports that the activists of some religious parties had distributed
sweets over the Taliban rule in Afghanistan.
Talking
to Media,
PML-N senior vice-president and former prime minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi said
that in-house consultations were already going on within the party over the
events unfolding in Afghanistan.
He
said the PML-N was of the view that Pakistan should not become a party in
Afghanistan’s internal issues and they should respect the verdict of the people
of Afghanistan. He said the party’s supreme leader Nawaz Sharif was also a part
of these consultations.
Mr
Abbasi said the government should brief the opposition and parliamentarians on
its policy on the Afghan situation. He was of the view that a mere debate in
the joint sitting of parliament would be of no use.
He
said the focus of the debate should be the development of a national consensus.
However, he said, the debate would only be meaningful if it was held after the
issuance of a policy statement from the government.
Mr
Abbasi said that Pakistan should make an effort to prevent bloodshed and civil
war in the neighbouring country. He said it would be important to see as to how
the Qatar declaration would be implemented as Pakistan was also a part of it.
He said it had been decided in Qatar that they would not recognise any
government taken over by force.
The
former prime minister said the PML-N believed that the two countries should
respect each other’s sovereignty.
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