ISLAMABAD, Dec 20: Reversing on its earlier recommendations, the Senate Standing Committee on Defence, which met here under its chairman Nisar Memon, on Tuesday okayed the government’s decision to purchase VVIP aeroplanes and Saab aircraft with surveillance system from Sweden.

Opposition members of the committee Farhatullah Babar and Rukhsana Zuberi of People’s Party Parliamentarians (PPP), Sardar Mahtab Ahmed Khan of Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N) and Kamran Murtaza of Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA) boycotted the meeting, terming its proceedings “illegal”.

According to a Senate Secretariat handout, the chairman of the Senate defence committee said that “comprehensive presentations had already been given by the ministries of defence and defence production in the two previous meetings on the subject and detailed information had also been provided to the members”.

The handout, which had no mention of the opposition members’ boycott, claimed that “all the members present in the meeting expressed their support for the government’s proposals for the purchase of Saab surveillance system and the aircraft for the use of VVIPs”.