ISLAMABAD: National Assembly Speaker Asad Qaiser has constituted a parliamentary committee on national security to monitor the transition from military courts to civil courts, oversee implementation of the National Action Plan (NAP) and discuss national security issues of an urgent nature.

The committee, to be headed by the Speaker himself, will include the Leader of Opposition, Shahbaz Sharif, and PPP chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari as members.

Other members include Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi, Parlieamnetary Affairs Minister Azam Khan Swati, Information Technology Minister Dr Khalid Maqbool Siddiiqui, Mohammad Akhter Mengal, Nawabzada Shah Zain Bugti, Senators Mushahidullah Khan and Sherry Rehman.

According to the terms of reference, the committee has a mandate to periodically review, monitor and oversee implementation of the National Action Plan in order to ensure its expeditious implementation.

It will also monitor the process of transition from military courts to civil courts through reforms in the criminal justice system and present periodical reports of the committee to both houses of parliament.

The parliamentary committee on national security has been constituted pursuant to the motions adopted by parliament. The Senate took the lead by adopting a motion on Feb 21, followed by the National Assembly on March 1.

The reconstitution of the parliamentary committee on national security has been a persistent demand of the opposition, particularly in Senate.

Raza Rabbani, the former Senate chairman, had said in October that he would play his role in reconstitution of the panel, which had become dysfunctional over the last three years.

He made these remarks after Pakistan Peoples Party Senator Sherry Rehman raised the issue on a point of public importance after submitting a petition in Senate for reconstitution of the panel, asking the chairman to play his role as it was a “need of the hour” amidst internal and external security threats to the country.

Raza Rabbani said when he headed the committee, it played an effective role in giving policy guidelines to the government, especially in the wake of the 2011 Abbotabad raid.

“I want this committee to be reconstituted and I’ll also call upon the National Assembly speaker to play his role in reconstituting the committee as soon as possible,” he added.

The petition submitted by Sherry Rehman was signed by 11 opposition parties. “The government should harness the power of democracy and institutionalise a consultative mechanism by reconstituting the National Security Committee of Parliament,” she said.

“Coordinating a national response to regional, external and internal threats can only be processed appropriately across whole-of-government instruments such as a National Security Committee of Parliament,” she added.

She observed that the principal motive of the National Security Committee was that parliament should take ownership of “strategic and tactical policy agendas initiated and operationalised by the government”.

Published in Dawn, April 27th, 2019