ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has convened Cabinet Committee on National Security meeting tomorrow (Friday), mainly to discuss the unprovoked firing by Indian troops along international border and LoC.
The meeting will be attended by adviser to PM on national security, defence minister, interior minister, finance minister, information minister besides chairman joint chiefs of staff committee and three services chiefs.
The media release issued by PM’s media office has created confusion as it stated that the prime minister has convened the meeting of National Security Council, the body formed by the Parliament in 2004 on the recommendation of the then president Gen Pervez Musharraf, which still exists but in a dormant form.
But on query it was cleared that actually the meeting of Cabinet Committee on National Security (CCNS) and not of the National Security Council (NSC) was called.
Sources in the government informed that mainly the current wave of unprovoked firing and shelling by the Indian troops on civilian population would be on the agenda, but issues like the progress on ongoing military operations in tribal areas and the rehabilitation of the IDPs to their homes in the areas cleared from the militants would also figure in the meeting.The sources informed that the military leadership will take the committee into confidence over the latest situation on the LoC and the working boundary, and a joint strategy would be adopted to handle the situation.
These sources further informed that Finance Minister Ishaq Dar and Defence Minister Kh Asif were abroad and would unlikely attend the meeting, which is scheduled for Friday (Oct 10) morning. Till late at night the private television channels continued to air the news of National Security Council meeting instead of the Cabinet Committee on National Security because the media team of PM never bothered to correct them. National Security Council was virtually dumped by the previous PPP government in 2009 but as it still exists because it was formed through an act of Parliament and needed to be annulled through Parliament, which is not done so. –Abrar Saeed