Country facing ‘5th generation warfare’

Leader of house in Senate says opposition’s movement undermining institutions

ISLAMABAD:

The leader of the house in Senate on Friday said the country was facing a fifth generation warfare as inimical forces were trying to instigate sectarianism and provincialism and weaken its institutions, including the judiciary and the armed forces.

“Opposition leaders should decide whether they wanted to strengthen democratic institutions or want to put everything at stake for their personal interests,” Shehzad Waseem maintained while speaking on the floor of the upper house of parliament.

He claimed that PML-N supremo Nawaz Sharif was sitting in London and speaking against state institutions.

“Army personnel are sacrificing their lives for the motherland while the sons of the PML-N chief [Nawaz Sharif] are sitting in London and protecting their wealth,” he added.

“Nawaz Sharif went to London after giving misstatements in courts and now he is asking others to go to jail.”

Waseem said the people of Pakistan should see as to whose hands the opposition parties were strengthening with their narrative and call for agitation.

“The steps being taken by the opposition will undermine the institutions.”

Referring to the statements of Khawaja Asif and Aitzaz Ahsan, he said the PML-N and the PPP did not trust each other. “[JUI-f chief] Maulana Fazlur Rehman doesn’t trust both of them [the PML-N and PPP].”

The two main opposition parties, Waseem said, wanted to protect their plundered wealth by using the people, who were aware about their designs and would not become a tool.

The senator said despite all the difficulties, the government would succeed in taking forward the country with the cooperation of the people.

Taking the floor, opposition leader Raja Zafarul Haq voiced his concerns over the ceasefire violations by Indian forces on the Line of Control and the recent terror attacks in the country.

Adviser to the PM on Parliamentary Affairs Babar Awan said Pakistani forces are giving a befitting response to any Indian aggression on the LoC.

He, however, added that India was playing a dangerous game in the region that posed threat not only to regional peace and security but also the world. “We are proud of our security forces which are rendering their lives for the security of the country.”

Later, the house passed two resolutions on the demise of Khawaja Hameed ud din Sialvi and Senator Syed Quran Ali Shah.

The senators sympathised with the bereaved families and prayed for the departed souls.

At the outset, the house offered fateha for the security personnel martyred in recent terror attacks in Ormara and Waziristan as well as the religious scholar Maulana Adil who was shot dead in Karachi.

Reports of different standing committees were also presented before the house.