In-camera session: Senators to be briefed today on foreign affairs

Committee to be briefed on Afghanistan problem and Kerry’s visit.

ISLAMABAD:

The ministry of foreign affairs will give an in-camera briefing today (Tuesday) to Senate Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and Kashmir Affairs and Gilgit-Baltistan.

The committee will be briefed by Adviser to Prime Minister on National Security and Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz on four issues: the Afghanistan problem, visit of the US Secretary of State John Kerry, Pakistan’s relations with Bangladesh, and the current situation with regard to Pakistan-India relations, according to the agenda of the meeting.

“We have arranged the in-camera meeting on the request of ministry of foreign affairs,” said the committee’s chairman Haji Muhammad Adeel while talking to The Express Tribune.

“Maybe they want to give a comprehensive briefing or perhaps they want to tell about some new development,” he added.

Earlier the standing committee chairman Haji Adeel had postponed the in-camera meeting scheduled for August 22, on the request of the ministry of foreign affairs.

Earlier, Aziz had briefed the House regarding Pakistan-India relations with particular reference to tension at Line of Control (LoC).

He had said that New Dehli had rejected Islamabad’s suggestions for a joint investigation or one by the Kashmir-based UN Military Observer Group in India. “Since it is the first time Sartaj will be briefing the senate committee, he has preferred to do so ‘in-camera’, said Senator Mushahid Hussain Sayed, adding that foreign policy briefings are usually public.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 3^rd, 2013.