JAC, WAF ask parliament to decide on involvement in Yemen

Karachi
The Joint Action Committee, Karachi, and the Women’s Action Forum (WAF) have expressed grave concern over reports that Pakistan is considering getting involved in the ongoing civil war in Yemen and called for a session of parliament to deliberate and decide the matter.
Speaking to the media at the Karachi Press Club on Friday afternoon, WAF chairperson Anis Haroon said the government and the army should serve and provide security to the people of the country. She said getting involved in the war of another country was beyond the mandate of the Constitution of Pakistan.
Flanked by the dean of social sciences at Szabist, Dr Riaz Ahmed Sheikh, Asad Iqbal Butt of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan,, resident director of Aurat Foundation, Mahnaz Rahman, Pakistan Fisherfolk Forum leader Saeed Baloch and the Karachi president of Democratic Students Federation, Naghma Sheikh, Haroon said the role of Pakistani government in the Yemen conflict should be that of arbitration, similar to the one Iran was playing at the moment.
“We are already involved in so many conflicts at home,” she said. “We spend $7 billion on defence and Saudi Arabia also spends colossal sums for the same purpose. We demand that a session of the parliament should be called to decide whether Pakistan should get involved in the ongoing war,” she said.
Dr Riaz Ahmed Sheikh said a civil war was raging in Yemen, and recommended thinking beyond emotional attachments. “Pakistan should avoid committing this mistake.”
Naghma Sheikh of the Democratic Students Federation said for the past three decades, Pakistan had been fighting a proxy war in Afghanistan and as a result millions of Afghan refugees had come here and terrorist forces were now attacking our own people.
Responding to a question, Anis Haroon said a diplomatic crisis had been created because Pakistan wanted to become a party in the war and this would accentuate sectarianism at home. According to her, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif would be a beneficiary of the war.
Citing Article 245 of the constitution, Anis Haroon said the army was required to protect Pakistan and its citizens against external and internal aggression and aid to civilian forces if required by the federal government.
“We believe that the Saudi state, its rulers and the holy places of Mecca and Medina are three completely different identities, but are often lumped together to create ambivalence in favour of the Saudi government,” she said.
She said Pakistan had a democracy that worked as a federation, and a parliamentary system where all federating units represented their units. Therefore, she said, the will of the people was to work according to the constitution of Pakistan and not according to the whims of the rulers, whether military or political.
“We demand that these constitutional and democratic rights be fully abided by,” Haroon said. The government of Pakistan should refrain from interfering in the affairs of any country where the interest of Pakistan was not at risk and it should try to contribute to international peace instead of getting involved in irrelevant conflicts, she said. “The parliament too should play its due role and save Pakistan from being part of any conflict.”