ISLAMABAD: The Leader of Opposition in the National Assembly, Syed Khursheed Ahmed Shah, expressed concern on Wednesday over the government’s decision to delay the proposed All Parties Conference on security.
Talking to reporters at the Parliament House, he said the decision to postpone the conference had created doubts in people’s minds.
He called upon the government to immediately convene the conference because security had become the biggest problem in the country.
About the reason cited for delaying the conference, Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf Chairman Imran Khan being out of the country, the PPP leader said the issue of national security should not be linked to one individual. Mr Khan should have given preference to the matter over his personal visit to the UK.
It was officially announced by the prime minister’s office earlier this month that the conference would be held on July 12 and Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan invited heads of various parties to attend it.
But the government changed its decision and said July 12 was only a proposed date and that the meeting had been delayed due to unavailability of some political leaders, including the PTI chief.
The opposition leader refused to comment on the leaked report of the Abbottabad Commission, saying that it was not appropriate for him to comment on a report that had not been officially provided to him.
He demanded an inquiry to determine who had leaked the report on a sensitive issue.
Answering a question about the nomination of chairman of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB), he said he could change the nomination if there was any legal complication about the appointment of one of his nominees.
Mr Shah has proposed the names of retired Justice Rana Bhagwandas and retired Justice Sardar Mohammad Raza for the post. He did so in response to a letter sent by the prime minister to him on July 2, nominating retired Justice Rehmat Hussain Jaffery and former federal secretary Khawaja Zaheer Ahmed for the office.
The post of NAB chairman fell vacant in May when a five-member bench of the Supreme Court, headed by Justice Tassadduq Hussain Jilani, declared the appointment of retired Admiral Fasih Bokhari as void.
Meanwhile, Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman said on Wednesday that the Abbottabad Commission report had failed to fix responsibility for security lapses on the country’s western borders. The report had generally held the political and military leadership responsible, he said in a statement.
“It should have clearly spelt out why radars were in sleeping mode on the eve of the raid on the residence of Osama bin Laden,” he said, adding that the report should have recommended “rolling of some heads”.
The report, he said, had failed to establish how the CIA had a vast intelligence network in the country.