RAHIMYAR KHAN: Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly and senior PPP leader Khur­sheed Ahmed Shah severely criticised the country’s foreign policy on Sunday and called for its overhaul in view of changing situation.

He said that two senior figures, Sartaj Aziz, the Prime Minister’s Adviser on National Security and Foreign Affairs, and Tariq Fatemi, Special Assistant to PM on Foreign Affairs, who were running the foreign ministry, were not suited to the job.

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He was addressing a press conference at the residence of PPP’s divisional coordinator Chaudhry Javaid Iqbal Warraich.

(TV reports quoted Mr Shah as saying that the government should convene an all-party conference to revise the policy which had failed to serve the interest of the nation. He urged Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to appoint a fully-fledged foreign minister.)

Mr Shah said the parliament had saved the PML-N government during the protest sit-ins, but Finance Minister Ishaq Dar started imposing new taxes without seeking parliament’s approval.

Answering a question, the PPP leader expressed ignorance about the Muttahida Qaumi Movement joining the Sindh government. He said he neither knew about the candidates who had been given party tickets for the Senate elections nor if PPP chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari had approved the decision.

He said the PPP was in favour of two new provinces — Multan and Bahawalpur. “We will approve the proposal for two new provinces whenever our party gets a two-thirds majority in the Punjab Assembly,” he said.

Levying of tax without parliament’s approval assailed

He criticised the PML-N for not awarding party tickets to anyone from southern Punjab and said that it was tantamount to usurping the rights of 120 MPAs elected from the region and its people.

He said Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf chief Imran Khan’s statement that the Shikarpur mosque incident was a failure of the Sindh government was ‘unwise’ because the PPP was trying hard to curb terrorism in the province.

The opposition leader said that approval of military courts by the parliament was a victory of democracy.

MASS WEDDING: The Islamic Welfare Society (IWS) arranged a mass wedding ceremony for 63 poor couples at Chak 100. Mr Shah was chief guest at the ceremony which was attended by PPP leaders and a large number of local people.

Ghulam Kibriya of the IWS said that the society had been arranging mass weddings for seven years and would continue to hold such events in future.

Published in Dawn February 16th , 2015

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