The opposition lawmakers in Senate on Thursday came down hard on the government for its delaying tactics in reconstitution of Parliamentary Committee on National Security, terming it an attempt to undermine the Parliament. Speaking on a motion moved by some 36 opposition senators on formation of Parliamentary Committee on National Security, Sherry Rehman of Pakistan People's Party said that the government is wilfully delaying formation of the committee despite commitments.
"We were promised by no other than the Prime Minister who assured us in presence of Ishaq Dar and Raja Zafarul Haq that the committee will be formed...I got a call from Fawad Hassan Fawad, the Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister, that the PM has promised to reconstitute the high-powered parliamentary panel," she recalled.
She said that the reason behind the delay in formation of the committee, which did a wonderful job under the chairmanship of Raza Rabbani, the incumbent Senate Chairman, is that interior minister is against its formation. Sherry, who is also a former ambassador, said that Parliament is the heart of democracy and committees form the heart of the Parliament, and National Security Committee, which was in place during the last PPP government, regularly debated, suggested and monitored policy options.
"This added a first layer of parliamentary oversight to a long and intense series of actions undertaken by civilian and military officials. The National Action Plan remains subject to little parliamentary oversight or co-ordinated burden-share," she added.
According to her, co-ordinating a national response to regional, external and internal threats can only be processed appropriately across whole-of-government instruments such as a National Security Committee of Parliament.
She said that the way operation is being carried out in Sindh and Karachi, rest of the country also needs similar operation to cleanse the country of militancy and terrorism. Dr Jehanzeb Jamaldini of National Party said that there should be a parliamentary oversight on what the National Action Plan, NACTA, and the intelligence agencies are doing to curb the menace of terrorism.
Stressing for improving the relations with neighbouring countries, he said it is not possible unless there is a parliamentary oversight, as this is how the democracies are strengthened in developing countries like Pakistan. Senator Usman Khan Kakar of PkMAP said that the reason no one has been made accountable after massive terrorist attacks in the country from time to time, is mainly because there is no parliamentary oversight on intelligence agencies and other government departments.
Lieutenant General Abdul Qayum (Retd), a treasury lawmaker also endorsed formation of parliamentary committee to keep a check on law enforcing agencies, besides helping the government in improving the performance of different government departments. Another military General Salahuddin Tirmizi (Retd) of ruling PML-N plainly stated that there is no need to form any committee as it will be another 'white elephant' and the government should focus on improving the performance of the existing departments.
"There are scores of committees but the issue is delivery. Not a single committee or any other department is performing up to the mark, so the focus should be on delivery, and once these existing committees start delivering, there will be no need of any other panel," he added.
Barrister Muhammad Ali Saif of MQM blamed the judiciary saying: "It is a 'sick institution' which is the root cause for all the issues we are confronting today." He added, "The criminal justice system should be improved if we want to overcome the problems."
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