LAHORE, May 10: Foreign former minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi has welcomed a planned briefing by military personnel to a joint session of parliament on May 13.
He suggested the session should be open and that a timeframe for the completion of investigation into the Abbottabad incident be given.
Mr Qureshi told reporters after the general meeting of the Farmers Associates Pakistan (FAP) on Tuesday that the nation wanted to know timeframe for the investigation into the Abbottabad incident and whether its findings would be made public or not.
“Those briefing the parliamentarians should take questions from the members and respond them,” he demanded and added: “The government's delayed response created ambiguities and suspicions about Pakistan (in the international community) and disappointed the nation. The army chief had also said the same that the government's media handling was poor. It is a serious issue in which Pakistan's airspace was violated. The government should have called a meeting of the defence committee of the cabinet on the issue.
“The findings of investigations should be placed before the Parliamentary Committee on National Security. Members of this committee are very important people from all political parties and they should discuss the investigation,” the former foreign minister said.
“Convening of the joint session of the parliament is a right decision and the army chief had also proposed the same. People wanted to know through elected representatives about the role of Pakistan in the war on terrorism and her sacrifices in the war.”
About the reports of issuance of a notice by the PPP to him for his anti-government statements, he said he was not criticising the government but only raising national issues and expressing his differences with the rulers, and doing all that at his own political risk.
“I might lose the office of PPP deputy secretary general and membership of the party's central executive committee. I was nominated on both seats by the late Benazir Bhutto herself, but I am ready for sacrifice for democracy,” he said. He said he had not received any notice and would respond only after receiving it.
