Islamabad, Mar 18 (PTI) Pakistan’s leading opposition party founded by jailed former prime minister Imran Khan on Tuesday boycotted the key security meeting to discuss the prevailing security situation in the country.
National Assembly Speaker Ayaz Sadiq chaired the in-camera meeting of the Parliamentary Committee on National Security after the March 11 hijack of a train by terrorists belonging to the banned Baloch Liberation Army (BLA).
The BLA hijacked the train with about 425 passengers on board in the Bolan area of Balochistan.
The meeting convened on the advice of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif was attended by key ministers, leaders of different political parties, provincial chief ministers, governors, and Army Chief General Asim Munir.
The military leadership briefed the parliamentary committee on the current security situation.
The details of the discussion were not immediately available.
However, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) refused to attend the huddle despite an invitation extended by the government as the party sought a meeting with Khan, 72, ahead of the meeting. The government did not accept the demand.
PTI-led opposition alliance Tehreek Tahaffuz-e-Ayeen Pakistan (TTAP) also stayed away, with TTAP chief Mahmood Khan Achakzai in a press conference demanding that Khan be invited to the meeting.
“The PTI founder should also be invited as no meeting will have significance without him,” he said.
Achakzai, who also heads his ethnic Pashtoonkhwa Milli Awami Party (PkMAP) party, said representatives from every political party should be invited to any meeting on national security.
“Pakistan’s dire circumstances require a joint session of parliament. [However], everyone should have a chance to speak in the joint session,” he said.
Apart from the Jaffar Express train hijack and the attack on a security caravan in Nushki, last week militants in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province targeted police and other security organisations in several attacks.
The security situation is volatile in the two provinces of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan where terrorists belonging to Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and BLA have repeatedly attacked the security personnel and civilians. PTI SH PY PY PY
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