Senator Irfan Siddiqui for constituting special parliamentary committee on terrorism

Senator Irfan Siddiqui for constituting special parliamentary committee on terrorism

Pakistan

Senator Irfan Siddiqui for constituting special parliamentary committee on terrorism

ISLAMABAD (APP) - PML-N’s Senator Irfan-ul-Haque Siddiqui on Monday asked National Assembly Speaker Raja Pervaiz Ashraf to constitute a special committee of both houses of Parliament for devising a consensus strategy to cope with the menaces of terrorism and extremism.

Participating in a debate on the law and order situation in the joint sitting of the parliament, he said intolerance and parochialism were anti-democratic norms.

He said the previous Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) government led by Muhammad Nawaz Sharif had tried its best to eliminate terrorism from the country.

The most affected province, he added, was Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, but the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), which ruled the province for a decade did nothing to eliminate terrorism. The PTI government even did not brief the Senate or any institution as it was not serious about rooting out the menace.

The National Action Plan (NAP) was also not implemented in KP, he added. The PTI government settled over 5,000 TTP-affiliated persons in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

He said during the last PML-N government (2013-18), a committee was constituted to hold negotiations with the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), and the committee formed by the TTP for the purpose surprisingly included PTI Chairman Imran Khan, besides Maulana Samiul Haq and Professor Ibrahim.

Imran Khan did not turn up for the talks and nominated Rustam Shah Mohmand to represent him, he added.

He said PML-N supremo Nawaz Sharif himself visited Bani Gala to brief Imran Khan on the talks.