Pathankot inquiry: Govt accused of keeping Senate in the dark

ISLAMABAD: Members of the opposition accused the government of misleading the Senate on Friday by deliberately concealing information from them.

PPP Senator Farhatullah Babar on Friday went to the extent of alleging that the government was patronising militants, a claim that Leader of the House Senator Raja Zafarul Haq strongly denied.

“Why else did the government not share details of the investigation into the alleged involvement of Pakistani nationals in the Pathankot attack with the House?”



He asked: “Has the Indian government provided any facts/information to the Pakistani government? And what is the latter doing in this regard?”

The queries, however, went unanswered. This prompted Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to announce that the findings of the probe would be made public. However, Babar retorted that he had raised the question four months ago and yet the question had been deferred each time since then.

Before the minister in-charge could speak up, Leader of the House Senator Raja Zafarul Haq stood up and strongly opposed the conclusion drawn by the senator. “The minister will reply to your question, but it is not appropriate to attack anyone’s intention,” he said.



Minister of State for Interior and Narcotics Balighur Rehman regretted the delay as the issue in question involved the Foreign Office and some other agencies. “The reply will definitely be submitted soon.”

He reiterated that the National Action Plan was being implemented and said terrorist incidents, on average, had come down due to that. He dispelled the notion that the government was hiding any information from the House.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 10^th, 2016.