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Tuesday, July 09, 2013



‘Efforts to block new national security policy will be resisted’

* Information minister says policy will not be changed on ‘a mere phone call’

Staff Report

ISLAMABAD: Information Minister Senator Pervaiz Rashid on Monday announced to resist all efforts to block the formulation of the new national security policy.

“Whoever creates obstacles in the new national security policy will be dealt with,” Rashid told the media in the Parliament House.

The new security policy has gained prominence in the wake of a wave of terrorism that hit the PML-N government right from the beginning.

The government, in view of the deteriorating situation, decided to convene a meeting of the political leadership of the country on July 12 to discuss the security policy.

“We want to formulate a security policy with the consultation of the political leadership, which would ensure peace and security in the entire country,” the minister said.

The minister also sounded firm on the sustainability of the new security policy when he declared that no one would be allowed to change it.

“The policy will be framed in such a way that it is not changed on a phone call,” Pervaiz Rashid remarked, an apparent reference to the US secretary of state’s call in 2001 to then military ruler Gen Pervez Musharraf, who took a U-turn on the Afghan policy after the 9/11 attacks.

He said that Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif wanted to formulate a national security policy on which on one had reservations, and for that the entire political leadership of the country was being taken on board.

About Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan’s departure to Britain before the meeting, Rashid expressed his disappointment and felt that Imran should have attended this conference.

On the other hand, PTI sources said that in the absence of Imran Khan, the party’s Vice Chairman Shah Mahmood Querashi would be representing the PTI in the conference of the political leadership.


Courtesy www.dailytimes.com.pk



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