Unanimous Resolution: Only six per cent participated in the debate to revise foreign policy

In what appeared to be a quite undemocratic, only six per cent of parliamentarians participated in the debate on the recommendation of the Parliamentary Committee on National Security (PCNS) about the new terms of engagement with the United States.

The joint-sitting of the Senate and National Assembly lasted from March 20 to April 12, 2012. The recommendations were debated for a total of 338 minutes by only 28 lawmakers out of the 445 in the two houses.

According to a report released by Free and Fair Election Network, only 25 per cent time was constituted out of the total session time of 22 hours and 22 minutes. If we take deep look, only 13 per cent of the 104 Senators and four per cent of the 341 MNAs spoke over the issue.

It said the longest joint-sitting of parliament in Pakistan’s history unanimously approved the new recommendations on ties with the US and general foreign policy.

The debate, however, exhibited that the parliamentarians were reluctant to share their thoughts on revising the revisiting the foreign policy reboot.

The recommendations covered many issues including opening land NATO supply-line and an end to drone strikes in country’s Tribal areas.

Discussion of the PCNS report consumed only one-fourth of the joint-session while rest of the time was taken to discuss target killing in Balochistan and Karachi, sectarian violence in Gilgit-Baltistan, increase in prices of petroleum products and power outages across the country.

Apart from rejecting first draft of the recommendation, the opposition parties’ representatives including Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (JUI-F) and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) were obvious by their absence during the discussion.

The PML-N has 104 members in the Senate and the National Assembly out of which only three Senators and two MNAs took part in the debate.

According to the report only one parliamentarian each from the Awami National Party, JUI-F, Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal Party (MMAP) and the Pakistan Muslim League (Functional) took part in the debate.

Similarly, 32 Muttahida Qaumi Movement legislators in the two houses and 12 Independents in the Senate stayed away from the debate.

Short URL: https://www.newspakistan.pk/?p=19002

Posted by Faisal Farooq on Apr 14 2012. Filed under Opinion, Pakistan, Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.