Islamabad :
A closed-door meeting of the Parliamentary Committee on National Security (PCNS) convened by National Assembly Speaker Asad Qaiser is underway at Parliament House, where military officials will brief on current national security issues.
Invitations were sent to more than 80 people, including members of the National Assembly, senators, members of the federal cabinet, the four provincial chief ministers and the prime minister of Azad Jammu and Kashmir, for the meeting to be held in the central hall of the National Assembly.
The issue of the government’s recent controversial and secret agreement with the banned Tehreek-e-Lubaik Pakistan (TLP) is expected to be raised by MPs as the agenda released by the National Assembly Secretariat states that MPs, during the meeting, Any issue can be raised with the permission of the Speaker. He said that media would not be allowed inside the Parliament building and media gate number one would be restricted.
Awami National Party (ANP) protested against the ban on media entry in the parliament building. ANP leader Zahid Khan while talking to media said that the ban on media during the National Security Committee meeting is beyond comprehension and He strongly condemned it. He said that the parliament is for legislation, in which banning the media is tantamount to robbing the voice and facts of the people.
He said that civil and military leadership had been coming to the parliament in the past but the media had never been banned and the present government was constantly busy banning the media.
Criticizing the Speaker of the Assembly, he said, “Asad Qaiser, despite being the Speaker, is disrespecting the Parliament. Earlier, he had also locked the media gallery.”
It should be noted that this will be the third meeting of the PCNS, before which the last meeting was held in September to discuss the regional security situation in the context of political developments in Afghanistan.
The meeting, which took place a few days before the Taliban’s takeover of Kabul, was attended by Chief of Army Staff General Qamar Javed Bajwa and Director General of Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) Lieutenant General Faiz Hameed.
During the meeting, senior military officials also answered questions from lawmakers, which was also attended by opposition leader and PML-N president Shahbaz Sharif and PPP chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari.
