PPP, PML-N come up with divergent views

Leaders of the PPP and the PML-N have come up with divergent views on the in-camera briefing by military as the former said that it would augur well for the future of the country while the latter said that there was nothing new in the briefing.PPP leader and federal minister Syed Khurshid Shah said that the briefing would be useful for the future line of action the government takes with consensus against the militancy.

He said it was an outstanding demand of almost all the opposition parties to convene a joint sitting of the central legislature to devise a comprehensive strategy for tackling the menace of extremism and terrorism. This was the opposition demand during the previous government, which never bothered the former civil and military rulers, he added.

After the PPP came into power, the present democratic government felt it necessary to convene the joint session, he added. It is historic development and will augur well for the country’s security and democracy. However, the PML-N leader Khwaja Saad Rafiq said there was nothing new in the briefing. “We heard in the briefing what we have been hearing for the last eight years or so,” he told a private TV channel.

In a meeting of the PML-N, it was stressed that mere briefing would not offer any solution to the problems the country is confronting. There is a need that the parliament should be empowered to frame a policy that is to be followed by all the state’s institutions including the army.

Most of the lawmakers have switched off their cell phones after the session was adjourned in order to avoid calls from media. However, a few of them who were available on phone were not much upbeat on the briefing they were given. Even some of the lawmakers from the ruling coalition were not satisfied.