The military briefing to the joint session of the parliament proves to be an eyewash through which the present government wants the opposition parties to join hands with the regime to own a war without changing Musharraf's policy.
The opposition parties both within and outside the All-Party Democratic Movement (APDM) have started defending their stance of not attending the in-camera session in the wake of reservations expressed by political leaders, who attended the briefing by military in parliament joint session.
"The Jamaat-i-Islami (JI) ameer Qazi Hussain Ahmad has done the right thing by not attending the military briefing that is aimed at maintaining the status quo in policies relating to the so called war on terror," said JI Naib Amir senator Professor Muhammad Ibrahim Khan while talking to Business Recorder here on Monday.
"Ultimately, the briefing and the parliament joint session will be of no use. The PPP-led coalition government is not going to change the policy, which had been pursued by former dictator General (retired) Pervez Musharraf," added the senator who attended the military briefing.
The opposition leaders including Nawaz Sharif and Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain who attended the briefing were not, at all, satisfied. The PML-N chief and his party have already expressed their reservations on the issue, said the senator.
"The PPP leaders including president Asif Ali Zardari are on the record to have stated that parliament would be strengthened. But they never said that parliament will formulate a policy on the US-led war on terror," he said. He said that information minister Sherry Rehman had already stated that Pakistan would continue taking part in the war against terror.
"If this is the government position, the holding of in-camera session or All-Party Conference (APC) will be meaningless", he maintained. The government had invited more than 17 political leaders who are not members of either house of the parliament to attend the last week closed door briefing by military. Most of the leaders including Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chief Imran Khan stayed away from attending the meeting.
Engineer Iftikhar Ahmad Chaudhry, a central leader of the PTI, said that in the first instance the government should have adopted a neutral approach. It should have announced a cease-fire with all the militants before it has analysed the situation for adopting a new approach viz-a-viz war on terror, he added.
There are certain indications that foreign hands including the intelligence agencies of India and Israel are involved in Pakistan's destabilisation. This is also the claim of the military. If this is the case, then there is a need of national unity and the ongoing operations are seriously hurting the unity of the nation. These steps must have been taken before convening the joint session of the parliament, he added.
The present government, he alleged, continues to follow Musharraf's policies and in such a situation, attending or not attending the parliament session becomes meaningless. The PTI decision of not attending the briefing was a right decision because it will bring no result, he said.