ISLAMABAD - Senate Chairman Mian Raza Rabbani Tuesday advised Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi not to meet the US Vice-President, Mike Pence, as part of its scheduled programme on the sidelines of the UNGA session as this would be tantamount to downgrading Pakistan.
“The media has reported that [the] prime minister would meet on the sidelines of [the] UN General Assembly (UNGA) session with the US vice-president and not with the US President, Donald Trump,” the chairman said in the house.
He added that this would be downgrading of Pakistan that Trump would not meet with the PM but his deputy would do so.
This is insulting behaviour at a time when Pakistan is playing its due role in war on terror in Afghanistan, he said.
“Don’t meet with [the] vice-president. If president is too busy, say him that I am too busy to meet with the vice-president,” he advised the prime minister.
He also said that if Trump had no time for Pakistan, then they had no time for the US.
The chair also asked Law Minister Zahid Hamid to ask the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to give a policy statement in the house today on the steps taken so far against the posters of “free Balochistan” displayed by the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) in Geneva.
“The ministry should inform what steps it had taken and what talks it had held with the Swiss government on the issue,” he said.
Rabbani said that it meant that Switzerland was encouraging and supporting terrorists from its soil at a time when the West was accusing Pakistan of supporting terrorists from its land.
Interior Minister Ahsan Iqbal in the house dismissed claim of former interior minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan that the country was facing some serious threats, which were only known to four persons including former prime minister Nawaz Sharif and him.
“I want to assure the leader of the opposition that the state of Pakistan was not facing any threat about which Cabinet Committee on National Security (NSC) was not aware of,” he said, while responding to the point of order raised by Leader of the Opposition Aitzaz Ahsan.
While responding to the claim of former interior minister that the incumbent prime minister was not even aware of such threats, Iqbal said that the Cabinet Committee on the National Security was in the knowledge of all matters of security.
He said that Abbasi was aware of all the matters of the state as well as the incumbent COAS.
Iqbal said that there was no forum of four persons present in the country about which Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan was talking about.
Earlier, Nisar in a TV interview had indicated that the then COAS and the then DG ISI knew about such threats besides the former PM and him.
Before this, Aitzaz Ahsan had deplored that even the incumbent prime minister and the COAS were not aware of threat as claimed by Chaudhry Nisar.
The interior minister said that the country was facing no threat that was only in the knowledge of a person in his private capacity, and added that the NSC was meeting regularly to cope with such threats.
The NSC has responded with maturity over Trump’s anti-Pakistan speech, he said.
Iqbal said that Pakistan was facing many challenges from outside including those forces that were afraid of the increasing stability in Pakistan.
This is because the CPEC has changed the destiny of the country, he added.
Iqbal said that fifth generation warfare was being fought today on the basis of information and by creating confusion within the institutions.
The minister made it clear that no threat was out of the control the country.
Responding over a calling attention notice regarding the blaze incident at the Awami Markaz, Islamabad, the interior minister said that the reports about the destruction of the CPEC record in the incident were misleading. “The record of CPEC was with the Planning Ministry,” he said.
Iqbal also said that there was no record of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) in that building.
He also informed the house that the CDA and the Islamabad administration had been directed to conduct a fire safety audit of all high-rise buildings of the capital.
Winding up the debate on an adjournment motion regarding the delay in the execution of Iran-Pakistan (IP) Gas pipeline Project and the future consequences of importing costly LNG from Qatar, State Minister for Petroleum and Natural Resources Jam Kamal said that the IP project was not facing delay due to the US pressure but as a result of the international sanctions imposed on Iran.
After these sanctions of the US and Europe, around 200 companies have been penalised and their businesses have affected.
“The assumption is also wrong that Iran had completed the project from its side, he said adding that Iran was far from completing the project from its side. About the TAPI Gas Pipeline Project, Kamal said that there was no delay from the Pakistani side and it was moving ahead.
He also claimed that Pakistan was not importing costly LNG from Qatar.
The PML-N Senator Mushahidullah Khan winding up the debate on the last presidential address to the joint sitting of the parliament said that the ousted prime minister Nawaz Sharif was punished for not sending troops to Yemen.
“It was the unanimous decision of the parliament and the establishment not to send troops but only one man got the punishment,” he said.
“I had also asked in [a] meeting that Nawaz Sharif would have to face the consequences for undertaking his first visit to China after assuming the charge of prime minster,” Mushahidullah claimed.
Federal Minister for Statistics Kamran Michael, while responding to a calling attention notice about the discrepancies in the figures of the Nadra, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) and the Census Commission about population of Karachi, said that this was because the Nadra and the ECP had data of those persons who were above 18 years of age.
The Nadra had also data of 28 million people having B-Form and below the age of 18 years.
He said that in census every person was counted.
About the major increase in the population of Lahore and not that of the Karachi with that pace, he said that the boundaries of Karachi were undecided since 1998.
He said that the Punjab government had included two tehsils of District Kasur in Lahore by declaring those urban and this was the reason of its population growth at a higher rate.