NA session: MPs say Pakistan must win war against terror

Believe that the nation will have to prepare for a long battle

ISLAMABAD: A day after parliament adopted the 21st Constitutional Amendment and Pakistan Army Act Amendment Bills, lawmakers in the lower house cautioned authorities that Pakistan has no option to lose the war against terrorism.

“We must win this war,” said Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao, while addressing the National Assembly on Wednesday.

He said the deadly terrorist attack on a school in Peshawar brought the entire nation on the same page and the decision to set up military courts was its manifestation. However, he said, it was deplorable that the nation kept on regarding terrorism as a peripheral rather than a core issue until the tragedy.

“It was a hard decision for parliament to establish military courts,” he said, adding that the nation will have to prepare for a long battle with terrorists.

In a thinly attended session, lawmakers from Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) and Fata dominated the debate, which revolved round the Peshawar incident and the war against militancy and terror.

Awami National Party (ANP) MNA Ghulam Ahmad Bilour welcomed passage of bills for the creation of special courts for trial of terrorists but added that the ANP has put its 100-year old politics at stake for security of the country. “Peace must be restored at all costs in the country,” he added.

MNA Gulzar Ahmad said Pakistan and Afghanistan should live like good neighbours and help each other to deal with terrorism in the region.

Ghazi Gulab Jamal – independent MNA from Fata – said terrorism has become a threat to the very survival of the state.Meanwhile, lawmakers from Fata walked out of the house and did not return. Fata lawmakers were protesting against some of the K-P governor’s decisions – with regard to the region – taken without their consultation.

Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Sheikh Aftab introduced the Patents (Amendment) Bill 2015 to amend the Patents Ordinance 2000. The bill was referred to the relevant committee.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 8^th, 2015.