October 06, 2008	Monday	Shawwal 06, 1429

ISLAMABAD, Oct 5: President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani discussed on Sunday matters relating to the forthcoming joint session of parliament to be held to review the security situation. The also exchanged views on federal cabinet’s expansion and the agenda of a meeting of the Economic Coordination Committee to be held this week.

The challenge of restoring peace in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) was discussed in detail.

Meanwhile, President Zardari formally summoned the joint sitting of parliament on Oct 8 for an in-camera briefing on the law and order situation by intelligence agencies.

Meanwhile, some opposition leaders have expressed the view that mere briefing would not serve the purpose and the issue needed to be comprehensively debated in parliament to evolve a consensus on finding a lasting solution to the problem.

They said the nation should not be kept in the dark about the real situation. It needed to be clarified whether the country was fighting its own war in the tribal areas.

The president and the prime minister also discussed the planned expansion of the federal cabinet following rejection by the Pakistan Muslim League-N of a fresh offer to rejoin the government.

Issues like rising prices of food items, trade deficit, agriculture, power generation and oil pricing also came under discussion.

They decided that the issues would be discussed by the ECC at its meeting likely to be held on Wednesday.