ISLAMABAD: An all-important meeting of parliamentary leaders in the National Assembly and the Senate scheduled for today for a briefing by military officials on the current issues of national security was postponed on Tuesday amid the opposition's boycott.
"The session of parliamentary leaders in National Assembly and Senate under National Assembly Speaker Asad Qaiser on Nov 11 has been postponed," the NA Secretariat said in a tweet.
It said there would have been a briefing on national security in the session, adding the NA Secretariat has issued the notice of
postponement of the session.
According to sources, the main objective of the briefing was to make an effort to develop a national consensus on granting provisional provincial status to
Gilgit-Baltistan.
They said the Chief of Army Staff (COAS) Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa and DG Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) Lt-Gen Faiz Hameed were expected to conduct the briefing.
However, it could not be verified through independent sources.
The list of those invited for the briefing also contained the names of AJK President Masood Khan, Prime Minister Raja Farooq Haider, GB Governor Raja Jalal Maqpoon, and caretaker Chief Minister Mir Afzal.
In a statement on Tuesday, Mian Iftikhar Hussain, information secretary of the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) - an alliance of 11 opposition parties - announced the PDM's decision not to participate in the NA speaker's session.
The opposition members who were invited for the meeting included PPP chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari and Senator Sherry Rehman, Khawaja Asif and Mushahidullah Khan of the PML-N, Balochistan National Party chief Sardar Akhtar Mengal and his party senator Jehanzeb Jamaldini, Jamaat-e-Islami chief Sirajul Haq, Amir Haider Hoti and Sitara Ayaz of the Awami National Party, Asad Mahmood and Maulana Abdul Ghafoor Haideri of the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam, Mir Kabeer Shahi of the National Party and Usman Kakar of the Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party.
Meanwhile, the alarming rise in Covid-19 cases in the country has once again forced Senate and the NA secretariats to postpone the meetings of the standing committees.
The officials at the NA Secretariat said it was their "fervent hope" that the lockdown might end beyond Nov 13 but the lawmakers would be "guided by the facts".
They said that the national security briefing to the lawmakers by senior military officials was postponed due to increasing cases of coronavirus.
A lawmaker belonging to opposition who wished not to be named said that it was postponed on insistence of the opposition parties as majority of their leaders did not want the meeting as electioneering for GB polls are in full swing.
Senator Sherry Rehman, the parliamentary leader of PPP in Senate, said that since briefing is about provisional province status to GB, so the leadership is busy in
election campaign and the meeting should be postponed.
The officials at NA Secretariat said that strict measures were put in place after over 35 officials of Senate and National Assembly Secretariat tested positive a week ago, forcing chairman Senate and NA Speaker to shut down the parliament to avoid further spread of the cases.
A statement issued here on Tuesday by Senate Secretariat said, "in view of the current Covid-19 situation, the competent authority is pleased to extend the postponement of meetings of all senate committees i.e. standing/functional/special/parliamentary committees with effect from November 19 till November 13, 2020".
The National Assembly, however, partially resumed the meetings of the standing committees on Tuesday, but the lawmakers and the officials have been directed to strictly follow the guidelines set by the National Command and Operation Center (NCOC) - the joint civilian-military body created to coordinate the national COVID response, in which high-ranking military officers play increasingly visible roles, enforced smart lockdowns in hundreds of COVID hotspots across the country.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2020