Govt urged to raise Parrikar’s statement at UN

ISLAMABAD: The Senate Standing Committee on Defence has condemned the recent controversial statement of India’s Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar, calling upon the government to take up the matter at the UN Security Council.

According to the Indian media, Parrikar said on Thursday that New Delhi has to “neutralise terrorists through terrorists”. The statement gives credence to Islamabad’s claims that Indian spy agency RAW is fuelling terrorism in Pakistan’s troubled regions.

Parrikar’s controversial remarks and its likely implications were discussed at a meeting of the Senate panel presided over by Senator Mushahid Hussain Sayed on Wednesday. In a unanimous resolution, the panel termed Parrikar’s statement ‘provocative and irresponsible’.

“The Senate Defence Committee, in its meeting held today [Wednesday] in Islamabad, strongly condemns the provocative and irresponsible statement of the defence minister of India, which, in reality, is tantamount to confession of the government of India pursuing a policy of state-sponsored terrorism,” reads the resolution.

Such an admission that India actually aids and abets terrorism has serious implications for all of its neighbors, particularly Pakistan, which being the biggest victim of terrorism in the region, is engaged in a national struggle to combat and crush terrorism, the resolution says.

“Terrorism is the number one threat to our national security and a struggle against which the people of Pakistan, particularly soldiers and civilians, continue to pay a heavy price,” it adds.

In light of this public admission by India’s defence minister, the Senate committee urged the government to take up this issue with the international community, particularly the UN Security Council, OIC and the European Union.

“Such a dangerous approach by India, whereby it considers terrorism as an instrument of state policy, is a serious threat to peace, security, stability and good neighbourly relations in South Asia and undermines the global war against terrorism and extremism,” states the resolution.

Work plan

The Senate committee also adopted its work plan from June 2015 to January 2016. It unanimously decided that apart from fulfilling the constitutional obligation of parliamentary oversight, the role of the defence committee is also to promote civil-military harmony.

It further decided to hold public hearings on role of Federally Administered Tribal Areas in defence and national security, implementation of the National Action Plan and impact of changing regional scenario on the country’s defence and national security.

 

Published in The Express Tribune, May 28^th, 2015.