Senator Farhatullah Babar said that the proceedings of the Parliamentary Committee on National Security (PCNS) were unwisely wrapped under cloak of secrecy and deprived itself of the wisdom of the people and civil society. While speaking on the floor of joint session of the parliament about the recommendations presented by the Committee said that by doing so the Committee deprived itself of the wisdom of the people and civil society.
"Parliament is all about transparency and public discussion. Secrecy will only undermine the Parliament's case for public participation and transparency in other state organs." He said that the terms of reference (TORs) of Committee were also not made public and there was no way to determine whether the Committee's recommendations were within its mandate or it had transgressed. While the Parliament calls upon other state institutions to remain within their limits it should also set the example of acting on what it expects from other state institutions, he said.
"If its Committee was tasked to deliberate on Pak-US relations in the light of Salala then the consideration of so many other issues would appear beyond its terms. The FMCT issue is not bilateral with the US; it is multilateral. Calls for dialogue process with India, Kashmir, China, relations with Russia, Afghanistan, the Muslim World, Asean, SCO and the gas pipeline are all very good but are they also within the terms of the Committee?," he said.
However, these limitations should not detract from the chief merit of initiating process of parliamentary oversight of elements of foreign policy. It has happened for the first time in the history of Pakistan, he said. He said that three broad objections have been raised against the recommendation. One, that the Parliament is a mere rubber-stamp. Two, the government does not intend to implement the recommendations. Three, political parties were not taken on board.
Farhatullah Babar said that as for the first objection that Parliament is rubber stamp, he said that not long ago the Parliament was made to endorse a uniformed army officer as the President But this Parliament restored the democratic constitution, selects judges of superior courts, CEC and election commissioners, appoints caretaker government and has taken control of the nuclear command authority. How can it be called rubber stamp parliament?, he posed question.
He said that it is alleged that the government does not accept Parliamentary recommendations. After the OBL raid on May 2 last year this Parliament adopted Resolution No 44 on May 14. The Resolution said that unilateral actions were unacceptable and called for taking necessary steps including withdrawal of transit facility to Nato/Isaf forces. Soon after the Salala incident on November 26 the government acting on this parliamentary resolution curtailed all other engagements, conveyed DCC meeting decided to close supply routes and got vacated Shamsi airbase within 15 days. It also decided that Parliament would be taken into confidence on a whole range of matters of Pakistan's future co-operation with US/Nato/Isaf. It is unfair to accuse the government of ignoring the Parliament's recommendations. He said that it was strange to assert that political parties have not been taken on board. He said that all political parties are represented in the Committee. Their representatives have put their signatures to the document, he said. He said how could it be claimed now that political parties were not consulted?
Complimenting the Parliament on the powers it had acquired for democratic accountability and oversight of foreign policy and security establishment, he said that in order to retain this power it was important that MPs equipped themselves with knowledge of the issues and also acted with great responsibly. The quality of parliamentary discourse must not be inferior to the quality of institutional responses to the foreign and security policies, he said.
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