Boycott of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) members from the proceedings of the Parliamentary Committee on National Security (PCNS) entered into the third consecutive day on Wednesday compelling the committee to delay its scheduled submission of final recommendations with the joint sitting of the parliament for a few days.
The situation forced Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani to seek help from PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif, who assured him that the PML-N members would end their boycott of the PCNS.
Gilani told Sharif that the PCNS meeting was being held under the leadership of Senator Raza Rabbani to finalise Pakistan’s new terms of engagements with the US and NATO. He said that it was in the national interest to reach consensus recommendations in the larger national interest and this occasion should not be used for political mileage. A source in the PML-N said that Gilani assured Sharif that the government would review the petroleum prices but the PCNS was important and it should not be ignored. The committee, which met here at Parliament House continued threadbare discussion to review the proposals floated by the main opposition parties, the PML-N and Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl without making any headway.
The committee was scheduled to submit its reviewed report with the joint sitting of the parliament on Wednesday but it failed to do so as no progress was made due to the absence of the PML-N members from the committee, who have boycotted the proceedings in protest against the increase in petroleum prices. The PML-N and JUI-F had opposed the committee’s recommendations and threatened to oppose the proposals in the joint sitting.
Resultantly, in a bid to address the reservations of the opposition members, a high-level meeting of the government and opposition parties decided that the PCNS would review its recommendations to achieve consensus to send a strong message to the world by the parliament.
It is pertinent to mention here that both the PML-N members of the PCNS – Senator Ishaq Dar and Mehtab Khan Abbasi – had signed the final draft of the recommendations but its leader Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan took a summersault, claiming there were some controversial clauses in the draft. Later, Mian Raza Rabbani, the chairman of the committee, could not hide his anger at the boycott of the PML-N members and said that the N leaguers should have attended the meeting.
He also admitted the fact that the continued boycott by the N leaguers had hurt the schedule and said that due to delay in finalising the recommendations, the committee would not be in a position to submit its report in the upcoming meeting of the joint sitting of the parliament scheduled to meet on Thursday. Rabbani said the committee was not bound to adhere to the reservations being expressed by the US administration and the PCNS was taking up the matter as per parliamentary norms.