Pakistan Sovereignty Act 2010: NA panel rejects bill

Bill requires the president to annually certify that no compromise has been made on the country's nuclear programme.

ISLAMABAD: The National Assembly’s Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs on Friday rejected a proposed bill which required the president to certify annually that the country’s nuclear programme had not been compromised.

The bill called ‘Pakistan Sovereignty Act of 2010’ was moved by the Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q). The proposed law would protect and preserve the sovereignty of Pakistan, according to the draft bill.

It required the president to certify to the parliament, annually, that no compromise has been made on the security or effectiveness of the nuclear programme, no understanding has been reached with any foreign country for interference in the change of command or promotions in the Pakistan Armed Forces or in the structure or rule of the security forces of Pakistan and no conditionality has been accepted from any source to weaken the defence of Pakistan against foreign aggression.

The bill was tabled in the National Assembly by senior PML-Q lawmaker Riaz Hussain Pirzada last year in response to the US Kerry-Lugar-Berman Act, which the opposition parties criticised as “intrusive”.

The US law is meant for providing $7.5 billion non-military aid to Pakistan over the next five years. However, it attaches certain conditions, including annual certification by the US Secretary of State to the Congress, that the economic assistance is not diverted to Pakistan’s nuclear programme.

The proposed Pakistan Sovereignty Act was referred to the foreign affairs committee which met behind closed doors at the foreign office to scrutinise it.

The meeting, chaired by Awami National Party President Asfandyar Wali, chairman of the committee, rejected the bill saying that all government functionaries, including the president, are bound under law to protect and preserve the sovereignty of the country.

“There is no need for any separate legislation,” observed Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi, who presented the government’s view on the issue in the meeting.

Qureshi said the government would never compromise on national security, including the country’s nuclear programme.

“We will maintain our minimum credible nuclear deterrence,” the foreign minister was quoted as saying by one of the committee members.

Dr Dunya Aziz, PML-Q legislator and one of the signatories of the proposed bill, said the meeting was called on short notice which is why her party members could not attend the committee’s proceedings.

“We could have defended our point of view much better had other members of our party attended the meeting,” Dunya told The Express Tribune.

“The committee feels that there is no need of a separate law on the issue, but my feeling is the bill has not been rejected outright,” she argued.

However, a member of the ruling Pakistan Peoples Party insisted the proposed law had been rejected.

There was no official word on the committee’s proceedings.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 22^nd, 2011.