ISLAMABAD, Dec 1: A meeting of the Senate Standing Committee on Defence has been convened on Friday to discuss issues of the purchase of two aeroplanes for use of VVIPs and the purchase of Saab aircraft with surveillance systems from Sweden reportedly at a cost of over $1 billion.

The meeting was requisitioned by four opposition senators Farhatullah Babar and Rukhsana Zuberi of the People’s Party Parliamentarians (PPP), Sardar Mehtab Abbasi of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and Kamran Murtaza of the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA).

A source told Dawn that Defence Minister Rao Sikandar Iqbal and Defence Secretary Tariq Wasim Ghazi besides several other officials of the ministry had been asked to attend the meeting on Friday.

When contacted, PPP Senator Farhatullah Babar said the opposition had requisitioned the meeting of the defence committee as during the recently-concluded Senate debate on earthquake, a number of senators had called for cancellation of the Saab deal with Sweden and diversion of resources to the reconstruction of the earthquake-affected areas. They had also demanded cancellation of the plan to purchase two new aeroplanes for VVIP travel.

On the other hand, he said, the government had been stating that defence and reconstruction were two different issues and neither could be sacrificed for the other.