The Parliamentary Committee on National Security (PCNS) took exception on Friday to the statement of US Ambassador to Pakistan Cameron Munter about using Pakistan’s airspace for NATO supplies, and summoned federal secretaries of the Ministries of Defence and Foreign Affairs to clarify situation to the committee.
“The meeting has taken notice of the statement by US Ambassador Cameron Munter that US/NATO forces were using Pakistani airspace for NATO supplies. The committee decided to seek a response from the defence secretary and foreign secretary to learn what the actual situation is on the ground and why such a statement was released,” Senator Raza Rabbani told reporters. The committee had met here at Parliament House to discuss the memo controversy. Rabbani said the committee had decided not to record the statement of Mansoor Ijaz abroad and his statement would only be recorded at Parliament House.
He said a member of the committee, or its chairman, would monitor the judicial commission’s proceedings in the memo case and if any new information emerged, the committee would request the commission to share the evidence or information with the PCNS. Rabbani said further that the committee had also empowered its chairman to summon immediate sessions of the body if any new information came to the fore. He said that Senator Prof Khurhsid Ahmed, the committee’s member from the Jamaat-e-Islami, had resigned from the committee’s membership.
Khurshid told Pakistan Today he had decided to resign as his party’s shoora had decided that the party would oppose the resumption of NATO supplies. “Since the PCNS had unanimously recommended the conditional reopening of the NATO supplies and I had signed the papers as a member, I was duty-bound to step down as member as my party has opposed it,” he added.
