The Parliamentary Committee on National Security has decided in-principal to
present its recommendations to the government regarding the Pak-US
defence cooperation and suggestions regarding the reconsideration of
cooperation in war against terrorism with US.
Meanwhile the committee has also summoned the details of the cooperation in defence filed from the foreign ministry.
The committee meeting would be held on the 29th of this month in
which the defence officials regarding the matter would brief the
committee members.
The meeting will also take account of the overall national security situation of the country.
The meeting of the committee chaired by Senator Mian Raza Rabbani
would be held in the parliament house, in which the establishment of
national authority of anti-terrorism and amendment in the
anti-terrorism act would be discussed during the meeting; meanwhile the
high officials of the interior ministry have been summoned in the
committee meeting in this regard.
The ant-terrorism bill was presented in the Senate last year and is currently with the standing committee on law and justice.
According to the sources the members of the committee had shown
reservations regarding the proposed amendments by the government.
In the anti-terrorism act the strict punishments are being proposed
regarding the trial of terrorists arrested from the country, to root
out the extremism, strict punishments over the recovery of explosive
material and closure of illegal FM radio stations has been included in
the amendment.
According to the sources the members of the committee have feared
that the law could be used against the leaders and workers of the
opponent parties in future.
After the reservations of the members of the opposition patties the
government has decided to make the law for the period of three years.
The committee after reviewing the document would send the recommendations to the Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani.
It is worth mentioning here that the foreign ministry had already
briefed the committee and it was cleared that Pakistan was
reconsidering the cooperation with US in war against terrorism and had
said that the suggestion to struck written agreements was under
consideration. SANA
