ISLAMABAD – As the Jamiat-i-Ulama-i-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) leadership continued to stick to its decision of boycott, the Parliamentary Committee on National Security (PCNS) could not make any progress in reviewing the recommendations for the foreign policy revisit.
On Monday morning, the PCNS meeting was held well over an hour late the scheduled time with Senator Mian Raza Rabbani in the chair, but it could not undertake the assigned job, as the JUI-F boycotted the deliberations, while the committee members from the PML-N and PML-Q could not attend the meeting due to some other engagements.
Talking to media, Raza Rabbani said the PML-N and PML-Q members of the committee had informed him that they were busy in connection with the Energy Conference in Lahore; therefore, they could not attend the Monday’s session.
Meanwhile, the personal request of Rabbani to Maulana Fazlur Rehman did not work, as he informed him that the decision to continue the boycott of the committee was by the party’s central council (shura).
Sources in the committee said as the main opposition parties were not attending the meeting, the committee members decided to adjourn the session for today (Tuesday) with a request to Maulana Fazl to end boycott and record his reservations on the recommendations in the committee instead of staying away.
Rabbani to a question clarified that the PML-N and PML-Q members of the committee did not turn up due to Energy Conference in Lahore and the members from both these parties would be join the today.
To another question, he said if JUI-F had any reservations, the same should be presented before the committee and even then if they considered that their point of view was not accommodated, they had the democratic right to write down dissenting note on the proposed recommendations.
At a party meeting at Fazl’s residence, the JUI-F shura members decided to continue boycott of all the parliamentary committees, including PCNS, and the Parliament’s session on the domestic violence bill.