ISLAMABAD: Criticising the government for not taking parliament into confidence on key foreign policy issues, opposition members in the Senate asked Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Wednesday to come to the house before going to the US to address the United Nations General Assembly.

“The prime minister should take people into confidence before his speech at the UN,” said Sehr Kamran of the PPP, while speaking on a “matter of public importance”, asking Chairman Raza Rabbani to ensure presence of the prime minister in the house.

Ms Kamran regretted that the government was openly saying that the Kashmir issue had been excluded from the Ufa declaration on India’s request. “Why do we make compromises on national interests?” she asked while referring to the declaration that was issued after the meeting between Mr Sharif and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Russia in July.

The chairman, however, directed the government to ensure presence of Adviser to the PM on Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz in the house on Thursday or Friday to respond to the points raised by the members.

The issue had initially been raised by PPP’s Sherry Rehman who regretted that despite recent incidents along the borders with India and Afghanistan, the government made no effort to inform the parliament.

“India is not willing to talk to us on issues other than terrorism and the Mumbai attack. When will we discuss these things in the parliament?”

Ms Rehman said the Indian leadership, which was under pressure of the RSS, had kept Pakistan under pressure through violation of the country’s borders.

She said there were reports that the Indian prime minister was unwilling to meet Mr Sharif on the sidelines of the UN Assembly session. “Our borders have become hot,” she said while drawing the attention of the house to constant violations of the working boundary by Indian forces.

The PPP senator said the government was still living in a state of denial over the presence of Daesh despite the fact that their black flags had been seen even in Karachi.

MQM’s RESIGNATIONS: The chairman announced that he would issue a ruling on Thursday or Friday giving legal justification for not accepting the MQM’s resignations so far.

He made the announcement after Leader of Opposition Aitzaz Ahsan asked him to explain why he had not taken any action on the MQM’s resignations submitted on August 12.

PTI WALKOUT: During the question hour, PTI members walked out to register their protest over a written reply by Finance Minister Ishaq Dar in which he had stated that the government had to postpone floating of bids for the privatisation of the Oil and Gas Development Company last year due to

some factors, including the PTI’s sit-in.

Without waiting for the house to take up a question asked by Daud Achakzai of the Awami National Party, Azam Swati of the PTI stood up and declared that members of his party would walk out in protest against the minister’s reply in which he had blamed the PTI for its failure to offer OGDC shares.

Published in Dawn, September 17th, 2015

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