ISLAMABAD - Parliamentary Committee on National Security (PCNS) failed to make any marked progress on evolving consensus on the recommendations for foreign policy revisit as the main opposition party Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) continued boycott of the proceedings here on the second consecutive day and its leadership made it clear that they would not end their boycott till withdrawal of recent hike in POL and CNG prices.
Before the start of the meeting here on Tuesday morning, chairman of the committee Senator Mian Raza Rabbani approached the PML-N member of the committee Sardar Mehtab Ahmad Khan Abbassi and requested him to end the boycott. He said the parliamentary committee represented the parliament and not the government and admitted that the recent hike in petroleum prices was unjust. Sardar Abbassi said he would convey his views to the party leadership and the final decision to attend meeting or otherwise would be taken by the party leadership. It is pertinent to mention here that the other PML-N member of the committee Senator Ishaq Dar left for Dubai on Monday night following party decision to boycott PCNS proceedings till withdrawal of the hike in POL prices.
Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly Ch Nisar Ali Khan said his party would not attend the meeting on Wednesday as well and they would raise the issue in the joint sitting of the parliament on Thursday when it would resume proceedings to devise guideline for overall foreign policy revisit.
Due to PML-N boycott, the main opposition party in the parliament, it would be unlikely that the revised set of recommendations would be tabled before the joint sitting of the parliament tomorrow (Thursday). On Tuesday the PCNS meeting was held with Mian Raza Rabbani in chair while PPP leaders Nadeem Afzal Chan and Qamar Zaman Kaira, PML-Q Senator Mushahid Hussain Syed, JUI-F President Maulana Fazlur Rehman, MQM MNA Haider Abbass Rizvi and PPP-S President Aftab Ahmad Khan Sherpao attended the meeting.
The reservations expressed by various parliamentary parties came under discussion in the committee meeting.
Talking to media persons after the meeting Senator Mian Raza Rabbani said it was a wrong impression that the committee was preparing the recommendations afresh and said that only the reservations of the parliamentary parties on these recommendations were being addressed. Sources aware of the deliberations of the committee informed TheNation that the committee had discussed some of the objections raised by JUI-F President Maulana Fazlur Rehman and PML-Q Senator Mushahid Hussain Syed on some of the clauses of the recommendations. To a question Rabbani admitted that the earlier resolutions of the parliament were not implemented in its totality and expressed his optimism that they would try to get all the recommendations of the parliament fully implemented by the government.
To a question he said the political leadership of the country would not disappoint the nation like they did in the past be it the constitutional reforms or the unanimous passage of NFC Award.
JUI-F President Maulana Fazlur Rehman, talking to the media persons after the meeting, said the protest over the abnormal increase in the prices of petroleum products was also democratic right of the political parties but it has no link with the matters pertaining to national security under review of the committee right now.