Opp rejects PCNS report being 'leaked to US envoy': Nisar

The Parliamentary Committee on National Security (PCNS) presented its recommendations before the joint session of parliament that started on Tuesday. However, Ch Nisar said that the government cannot be given freedom to write foreign policy as per its whims, particularly when doing so is to hoodwink the masses. He said there was no point of presenting the PCNS report before the parliament without getting suggestions from the opposition parties. He said the PM had promised that opposition parties would be consulted before putting the recommendations in the parliament, but this turned out to be a false promise.Nisar said asking the US to “do this, and don’t do that” is meaningless when it already has showed least regard for earlier resolutions on drone strikes or other related issues.He said that the report presented to the parliament was first shown to the US ambassador, therefore it cannot get approval from the opposition parties.The opposition leader in the National Assembly also said that certain aspects of the report have been kept secret. Ishaq Dar was not allowed to share the details with the party for consultation, he added.He said the whole process becomes meaningless if the government otherwise fails to convince the US on diplomatic front that they need to respect Pakistan’s sovereignty. He said that if the government wants a legislation on the issue of Nato supply and other security-related issues such as drone strikes, it could do so, but the opposition would resist such move because the government can later use the same legislation to present it as a pretext to allow interference in the country’s affairs.Nisar said Pakistan is the only country where foreign sleuths entered and operated. Nowhere but the occupied territories such as Afghanistan and Iraq had this practice, he added.The opposition leader said that such legislation could also be misused by the government to allow repeat of Raymond Davis-like episodes.