Reviewing terms of engagement: PML-N snubs panel’s proposals

Opposition PML-N says it was skeptical of the government’s will and ability to implement the panel’s proposals.

ISLAMABAD:

While the government cheered the move as the ‘beginning of a new era’, the main opposition party appeared hardly impressed with the recommendations of a parliamentary panel to review war on terror cooperation with the United States.

“It will send out a horrific and dangerous message if parliament is used to approve these recommendations,” said Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan on Tuesday.

He was speaking to media after the bipartisan, bicameral Parliamentary Committee on the National Security (PCNS) presented its recommendations to the joint sitting of parliament, outlining guidelines for the government to redesign foreign policy.

Opposition Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), whose lawmakers were part of the 17-member committee which approved these recommendations in January, said it was skeptical of the government’s will and ability to implement the panel’s proposals.

Nisar said his party would expect the government to first explain why it wasn’t able to implement a couple of unanimous resolutions passed by parliament in the past before moving ahead to approve these recommendations.

“It’s a valid question,” Nisar told reporters outside parliament. He added that the recommendations did not contain any explicit demand of halting drone campaign.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 21^st, 2012.