February 08, 2007	Thursday	Muharram 19, 1428

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ISLAMABAD, Feb 7: Ruling Pakistan Muslim League president Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain held a meeting with Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz on Wednesday and discussed security measures to deal with the alarming security situation in the federal capital in the aftermath of the series of terrorist attacks and the security agencies’ warning about threats of terrorist attacks on the Parliament House and the Parliament Lodges.

The meeting held at the prime minister’s chamber in the Parliament House was also attended by some ministers and PML legislators expressed serious concerns about the worsening law and order situation in the light of the latest grenade attack late on Tuesday evening on Islamabad airport.

Speaking on the occasion, the prime minister said that the recent acts of terrorism in the country had strengthened the government's resolve to continue its relentless campaign against terrorism.

The prime minister also briefed the meeting about measures taken by the government to prevent their re-occurrence.

Talking to Dawn, Minister of State for Information Tariq Azim said the meeting decided to form a committee to meet representatives of journalists and to allay their concerns about gagging the press by putting some restrictions on their movement.

He said the measures, including prevention of television cameras in the Parliament House Cafeteria, were justified in view of the worse security conditions and in light of an experience of Afghan warlord Ahmed Shah Masood’s murder that was killed by a bomb hidden in a movie camera.

Moreover, he said there was a total of 43 television channels operating in the country and permitting one and disallowing others would be discrimination which the government would like to avoid.

According to sources it was decided that the entry of visitors to the Parliament House and the parliament lodges would be curtailed and all MPs, including journalists, will have to pass through security check before entering both buildings.