ISLAMABAD, April 4: The Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA) has called for renaming the proposed National Security Council (NSC) as national advisory council, replacing the president with prime minister
as its chairman and keeping the services chiefs out of it.
Though the amendments demanded by the MMA stand no chance of getting through, these will let the leaders of the alliance to forcefully put across their opposition to the idea of the council.
The MMA submitted its five-point amendment to the draft NSC bill to the National Assembly secretariat on Sunday. These are: The prime minister shall be the chairman of the council, no services chief will be its member, it will be called national advisory council, its mandate will be confined to deliberating on national security matters and all recommendations of the council shall be sent to both houses of parliament for assent.
MMA's deputy secretary general Liaqat Baloch and deputy parliamentary leader in the National Assembly Hafiz Hussain Ahmed went together to submit the amendments signed by 10 MNAs to the lower house secretariat.
The MMA has also submitted to the NA secretariat two separate adjournment motions for consideration on Monday when the NSC bill will come up for debate. Through the first adjournment motion the alliance of religious parties want that the NSC bill be sent to the Council of Islamic Ideology for vetting and through the other it has demanded that the bill be made public for allowing a general debate among the masses.
