by Javaid Ur Rahman in The Nation, Feb 14, 2023
ISLAMABAD – PPP senior Senator Raza Rabbani, in the proceedings of the joint session of parliament, yesterday sought details of the negotiations with the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan in an in-camera session.
“If the house is serious in debate, DG ISI and DG Intelligence Bureau be invited to brief in in-camera sitting,” PPP senior Senator Raza Rabbani suggested the government, speaking at the second day of joint sitting of the parliament.
The session with the outset of the proceedings offered prayers for the two military officers martyred in Balochistan, as well as for literary giants Amjad Islam Amjad and Zia Mohyeddin, who passed away the other day.
Rabbani also pointed out absence of Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah in the session. “When the house is discussing law and order situation the Minister for Interior should be in the house,” he said, adding that the government should issue a policy statement over the new wave of terrorism in the country.
Jamaat-e-Islami lawmaker Senator Mushtaq Ahmad Khan, taking part in the debate, said neither the federal government nor provincial government accepted responsibility of failure to stop acts of terrorism.
He commented that to why MNA Al Wazir was not being produced in the National Assembly despite issuance of his production orders. He said that terrorists were ruling the province as 376 acts of terrorism had taken place there from May to December last. PML-N’s Senator Irfan Siddiqui, on his turn, the previous government wasted nearly four years. He said there was also a need for holding the previous KP government accountable for not building up capacity of the provincial police.
Minister for Poverty Alleviation and Social Safety Shazia Marri stressed the need to focus on law and order in the country as durable peace could help address all other problems, including the economic crisis.
She said the parliament always played a key role whenever the incidents of terrorism like the Peshawar Police Lines mosque blast and the Army Public School Peshawar attack occurred.
She endorsed the viewpoint of Senator Raza Rabbani of to convene an in-camera sitting of the parliament to thoroughly discuss the facts behind the gory incidents. The minister stressed that the 20-point National Action Plan (NAP), which was devised on the recommendations of the joint sitting of the parliament, should be completely implemented to avert the reoccurrence of terrorist incidents. She viewed that extremism and terrorism were interlinked as both the menaces had the same narrative and mindset behind them and the war against the two could not be won until a counter-narrative was devised.
https://www.nation.com.pk/14-Feb-2023/mps-demand-in-camera-briefing-on-terrorism
