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Pakistan

Senate body tells media analysts to spare Pak Army

Dunya News

Senate body on defence has asked media analysts to avoid baseless criticism on Pak army.

The meeting of Senate Standing-committee for defence was held in the parliament house on Monday headed by its Chairman, Mushahid Hussain Syed.Members of the committee including Raja Zafar-ul-Haq, Sehar Kamran, Colonel (Retd) Tahir Hussain Mashhadi and Farhatullah Babar attended the meeting.Referring to the Pakistan Army, the committee gave recommendations that unnecessary disapproval of the national assets must be stopped, as it is defaming Pakistani national institutions all over the world.Tahir Hussain Mashhadi said on the occasion that no country criticizes its own armed forces and sensitive institutions but in Pakistan, the so-called analysts do so arguing unnecessarily about the excess of national defence budget.This defames our institutions abroad, he added.Tahir Mashhadi said that Pak Army and relevant institutions are not taking steps essential for saving the reputation of our sensitive institutions. He insisted on the role of defence ministry in this regard.Tahir Mashhadi posed a question why local government elections are not held in cantonment areas while a big population of civilians lives there and in this way, their basic rights go violated.The defence secretary said that the affairs of the cantonment areas are connected with the defence institutions and only they have to deal with it.Mashhadi said local government elections should also be held in Islamabad.Senator Sehar Kamran was of the view that other countries lose trust on Pakistani forces just because of the negative criticism and it is necessary to end this irresponsible behavior.Raja Zafar-ul-Haq said relations between Pakistan army and civil government experience highs and lows and the time has come that both work within their own constitutional limits and build trust for long-lasting relations.He said Pak army should cooperate and advice the civil government so that they unite to fight the challenges faced by the country.He noted there are many misconceptions about the national defence budget and the Pak army should work to remove them.At this, Defence Secretary, Nargis Sethi told the committee that the national defence budget amounts to Rs 545 billion only and 70 per cent out of this is spent on paying the salaries of the officers and soldiers.The committee directed the defence ministry to give a briefing on defence budget after the Eid festival.The committee will also visit the headquarters of Pak Army, Pakistan Air Force and Pakistan Navy and will seek briefing from each one of them.The defence ministry also briefed the meeting on defence affairs, and every member of the committee showed satisfaction over it.The committee directed the defence ministry to apprise itself about its policy over eliminating terrorism and the exit-strategy of the US and NATO forces from Afghanistan in 2014.The committee directed Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) to arrange briefing for those media men who report about the defence ministry and the standing-committee for defence, in order to apprise them about the ongoing war on terror and to facilitate their visit to Waziristan.The committee recommended the defence ministry to take necessary measures relevant to its visit to Pakistan Peace Commission in Africa scheduled next year.Chairman of the Senate Standing-committee, Mushahid Hussain Syed observed the committee, on the occasion of national defence day, that is on September 6, will lay floral wreathes on the graves of martyrs who got the biggest military honor, Nishan-e-Haider, and will pay tribute to them.