Raza Rabbani calls for committee of whole House to be convened to discuss Pakistan’s foreign policy

Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) leader and former Senate chairman Mian Raza Rabbani on Monday said the government needed to “reassess and re-evaluate” the foreign policy of Pakistan and called on the Leader of the House in the Senate to move a motion for convening a meeting of a committee of the whole House to discuss the various foreign policy options of the country.
In a press release issued by the former Senate chairman today, he added that this should be done in consultation with the relevant stakeholders and recommendations should be formulated.
Rabbani said that the National Assembly’s Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs should also formulate its own recommendations after a “thorough debate”.
He added that the recommendations of the committee and the NA standing committee should be presented before a joint sitting of parliament, where he said, they should be considered and “if so required, experts and stakeholders may be asked to appear for their inputs before a comprehensive document of recommendations is adopted by the joint sitting”.
A joint session of Parliament was held on Thursday to discuss rising tensions with India in the wake of the Pulwama attack and subsequent airstrikes by both countries.
According to Rabbani, the “recent shift in foreign policy alignment doesn’t seem to have borne fruit” as the Abu Dhabi declaration of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) in its 50 points did not talk about Indian aggression against Pakistan.
He added that resolutions that were passed with reference to “Indian terrorism in Kashmir” were sponsored by Pakistan.
Earlier the Foreign Office (FO) said that the OIC’s ministerial meeting that concluded in Abu Dhabi on Saturday had reaffirmed its unwavering support for the Kashmiri people in their just cause.
In a statement, the FO said: “In a resolution adopted by the 46th session of the Council of Foreign Ministers (CFM), the OIC member states reiterated that Jammu and Kashmir remains the core dispute between Pakistan and India and its resolution is indispensable for the dream for peace in South Asia.”
The OIC resolution condemned in the strongest terms recent wave of Indian terrorism in India-occupied Kashmir and expressed deep concern over atrocities and human rights violations in the occupied valley.
The resolution also reminded the international community of its obligation to ensure implementation of UN Security Council resolutions on the Jammu and Kashmir dispute.
“There may have been a flurry of activity in foreign capitals, including Washington, for a de-escalation of the tension between Pakistan and India but at the end of the day, it was activity full of sound and fury signifying nothing,” Rabbani said in his statement today, adding, “despite Pakistan being a victim of Indian aggression, the emphasis was for us to do more.”
Meanwhile, a decisive crackdown on extremist and militant organisations in the country looks imminent. “The action would soon be visible as things progress,” a source told a group of journalists at a background briefing on Sunday.
The imminence of action against extremist groups was confirmed by Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry while talking in DawnNewsprogramme Do Raaye. He said the government had taken a firm decision that there would be a stern action against all militant groups. This, he said, was in accordance with the political consensus contained in the National Action Plan (NAP).