Senate body condemns statement of Indian defence minister

ISLAMABAD: Senate standing committee on Defence has strongly condemned the statement of Indian Defence Minister terming it provocative and irresponsible and asked the Pakistani government to take up the issue with the United Nations Security Council. The meeting was held under the chairmanship of Senator Mushahid Hussain Sayed here at the Parliament House on Wednesday.
The resolution adopted unanimously stated; “The Senate Defence Committee, in its meeting held today in Islamabad, strongly condemns the provocative and irresponsible statement of the Defence Minister of India, which, in reality, is tantamount to confession of the government of India pursuing a policy of state sponsored terrorism.
The resolution stated that such an admission that India actually aids and abets terrorism has serious implications for all of India’s neighbours, particularly Pakistan, which being the biggest victim of terrorism in the region, is engaged in a national struggle to combat and crush terrorism. “Terrorism is the number one threat to our national security and a struggle against which the people of Pakistan, particularly soldiers and civilians, continue to pay a heavy price,” the resolution stated.
It says that in light of this public admission by the Defence Minister of India, the Senate Defence Committee urges the government of Pakistan to take up this issue with the international community, particularly the United Nations Security Council, OIC and the European Union, as such a dangerous approach by India, whereby it considers terrorism as an instrument of state policy, is a serious threat to peace, security, stability and good-neighbourly relations in South Asia and undermines the global war against terrorism and extremism.” The committee also adopted its work plan from June 2015 to January 2016.
The committee unanimously decided that apart from fulfilling the constitutional obligation of parliamentary oversight, the role of defence committee is also to promote civil-military harmony.The defence committee proposed in its work plan visits of delegations from Royal College of Defence Studies UK and parliamentarians from China to be hosted by the committee.
It also decided to hold public hearings on Role of Fata in defence and national security, implementation of National Action Plan and impact of changing regional scenario on Pakistan’s defence and national security.
Visits to CMH to see the soldiers injured in Zarb-e-Azb, laying wreaths at recipients of Nishan-e-Haider on defence day, holding seminar on the completion of 50 years after the 1965 war and media seminars to interact with defence reporters are also a part of the future work plan of the committee. The committee also decided to look into the prospects of RAW’s hand in destabilising Pakistan.The committee members agreed that by taking up important issues, the committee has now graduated from regular briefings to real oversight.