The opposition senators on Friday sought explanation from the government over the statement of US Ambassador in Pakistan Cameron Munter that NATO was still using Pakistan’s airspace to transport supplies to Afghanistan.
Senator Prof Khurshid Ahmad raised the issue of NATO’s persistent violations of Pakistan’s air space in the Senate on a point of order. As there was no proper response from the treasury benches due to the absence of foreign and defence ministers, Prof Khurshid, Senator Zafar Ali Shah and several other members from the Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) and the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) walked out in protest later. Prof Khurshid voiced his strong protest against NATO’s violation of Pakistan’s air space, and the government’s “tacit permission” as claimed by the US ambassador.
The JI senator said that NATO’s use of Pakistan’s air space was contrary to the assurance given by the government to the Parliamentary Committee on National Security that all NATO supplies through Pakistan had been suspended. “It is a very serious matter that the US and NATO forces are violating our sovereignty and the government and the Pakistan Air force have failed to respond to protect Pakistan’s sovereignty. They have also failed to implement the parliament’s resolutions on this issue in letter and spirit,” he added. Interior Minister Rehman Malik, while responding to the queries of lawmakers particularly from Balochistan on the worsening security situation in the province, said it was crucial that politicians play their role in countering the conspiracies to sever Balochistan from Pakistan.
He said a “third force” was involved in the killings in the province, adding that the bullets fired at the slain family members of Mir Bakhtiar Domki were not made in Pakistan. He said that law enforcement agencies had seized a heavy cache of weapons in a raid at the house of a Baloch insurgent in Turbat. He asked who was providing luxury vehicles, satellite phones and automatic weapons to Baloch insurgents. Senator Shahid Bugti was of the view that the Balochistan issue was political in nature, and that the minister should inform what steps he had taken to settle it. He asked the interior minister what steps had been taken to recover the missing persons in Balochistan, and the progress on the killings of three Baloch leaders in Turbat and Nawab Akbar Bugti.
The Senate also passed the Shifa Tameer-e-Millat University Bill, 2011 unanimously before it was prorogued san die.