ISLAMABAD: The government has sent a summary to the Presidency seeking President Mamnoon Hussain’s approval for holding a joint session of parliament to discuss the issue of ‘surgical strikes’ by Indian forces across the Line of Control (LoC).

“The Presidency has been intimated about the joint session through a summary sent by the Prime Minister Office,” a source in the Presidency told Dawn on Friday.

Although Pakistan’s civil and military leadership has categorically denied any surgical strike by Indian forces, escalating tension on the LoC compelled Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to announce that the joint session of parliament would be held on Wednesday.

“The Joint session of Parliament will be convened on Wednesday to reaffirm the national resolve for safeguarding the sovereignty and preserving the territorial integrity of the motherland against any external or internal threat as well as reiterating the moral, political, and diplomatic support to the people of Kashmir,” Prime Minister Sharif said.

A day before the joint session, a meeting of the National Security Committee will be held in which all chief ministers will take part to discuss the emerging scenario across the LoC and also in Kashmir.

Talking to Dawn, Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly Syed Khurshid Shah said that not only the violation of LoC by Indian forces would be discussed in the joint session the opposition would also raise the issue of what he called complete failure of the government’s foreign policy which had left Pakistan isolated across the world.

“We believe that the government’s foreign policy has completely failed and it should be revisited,” the opposition leader said.

He said the postponement of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (Saarc) conference was actually the failure of the government’s foreign policy.

It has already been questioned in political circles why Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has kept the charge of the foreign ministry and why the portfolio of a foreign minister has not been given to any of his cabinet member.

Replying to this question, Information Minister Pervez Rashid told a private TV channel that seasoned politician Sartaj Aziz had been performing this duty as adviser to the prime minister on foreign affairs. Besides, he said, another foreign affairs expert Tariq Fatemi was serving the prime minister as his special assistant.

He said that both Mr Aziz and Mr Fatemi were part of the prime minister’s foreign policy team which always took decisions after a thorough discussion and after reviewing the overall external situation.

Published in Dawn, October 1st, 2016