The Parliamentary Committee on National Security (PCNS) on Monday could not make any headway on the proposal of conditional reopening of NATO supply routes due to a boycott by PML-N members.
Both PML-N members Senator Ishaq Dar and Mehtab Khan Abbasi did not attend the PCNS meeting on Monday in protest against petroleum price hike. On Saturday, the PCNS members had entered into a deadlock on a proposal for conditional reopening of NATO supply routes with JUI-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman sticking to his demand that NATO supplies should not be opened.
Though the PCNS remained in session for about an hour on Monday, no headway could be made as the government coalition wanted to take along the members of the main opposition party and thus no decision was made despite some technical discussion made on the proposals submitted by the PCNS members. A member of the PCNS told Pakistan Today that technically, the PCNS did not deliberate as it was decided by the ruling coalition that formal debate would be conducted once the PML-N members returned to the committee, most likely on Tuesday morning. In the previous PCNS meeting, both factions of the PML – Q and N – were supportive to the proposal tabled by Senator Mushahid Hussain Sayed to linking reopening of NATO supply routes with halting drone attacks inside Pakistani territory, but the JUI-F vetoed the proposal, compelling the committee to adjourn its proceedings until Monday. However, PML-Q Secretary General Mushahid Hussain Sayed claimed that the committee had evolved consensus on conditional reopening of NATO supply routes.
The committee also agreed to delete its two clauses from the draft. The new clause says that no foreign security contractor or intelligence official would be allowed to conduct covert operations on Pakistani soil while in future the government should also not give its airbases to any foreign country, the source added.
Sharif Sharif na raaha…!!
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