KARACHI, March 9: Criticising the government’s internal and external policies, Leader of Opposition in Senate Mian Raza Rabbani has called for a joint session of parliament to discuss the current situation and threats being faced by the country.

Talking to newsmen at the residence of PPP leader Nafees Ahmed Siddiqui, he said the government could have held an in-camera session if it considered some issues were sensitive and pertained to the security of the country.

He stressed the need of holding a joint session to take all parliamentarians into confidence on external and internal policies.

It was due to the government’s wrong policies that after the US, India and Afghanistan were also threatening Pakistan of hot pursuit, he said.

The government, he added was hiding facts from its own people regarding Thursday’s strike by NATO forces, which violated Pakistan’s airspace and picked up some wanted persons inside Pakistani territory near the Afghan border.

Mr Rabbani, who is PPP Deputy Secretary-General, declared that the joint opposition in parliament would launch a protest inside and outside parliament in case the government postponed the next general election.

He condemned a federal minister’s statement regarding postponement of the next general and said that the regime wanted to escape from the election after sensing they would be defeated. He emphasised the need for holding free, fair and impartial elections in the country to rescue it from the current crisis.

The PPP leader also said that the demands made by certain quarters for imposition of emergency showed that the government had lost its writ.