ISLAMABAD: Defense Minister Khawaja Asif on Sunday accused the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) of “standing with terrorists” as the opposition backed by the party opposed a newly approved counterterrorism operation.
Pakistan’s top national security forum on Saturday announced the Operation Azm-e-Istehkam, or Resolve for Stability, campaign after a meeting of the Central Apex Committee on the National Action Plan (NAP) that was attended by senior military leaders and top government officials from all provinces, including PTI-backed Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur.
The approval for the operation comes amid a surge in militant attacks across Pakistan and after a mob lynching this week of a local tourist over accusations of blasphemy in the northwestern Swat district.
“Even KP CM was present in the meeting yesterday, it was all decided in front of him, the measures that would be taken against terrorism,” Defense Minister Asif said on the floor of the house as cries of “end the operation” rang out through the hall.
“Today by their demonstrations they are showing that they stand with terrorists, they are demonstrating against the martyrdoms rendered by the Pakistani army, they are demonstrating against the Pakistan army that’s sacrificing lives in the fight against terrorists.”
Before Asif’s speech, PTI lawmakers had staged an hour-long walkout against the operation, but later returned and began chanting slogans against Azm-e-Istehkam.
Speaking to the media outside parliament during the walkout, PTI Chairman Barrister Gohar Khan said the opposition was against the operation because it had not been discussed in parliament.
“Our demand and point of order is that be it any operation, a full-fledged one or an intelligence-based operation, or be it in certain districts, it is imperative for parliament to be taken into confidence,” Khan said, arguing that an operation could not be launched simply with the approval of the NAP apex committee.
“No matter how big the apex body is and no matter who comes and sits there, it can never supersede the parliament,” the PTI leader said. “According to the constitution, parliament is the supreme. Our demand is that no operation should be initiated without taking parliament into confidence.”
Senior PTI leader Asad Qaiser also spoke to reporters and gave a similar message:
“In simple and short words, we cannot support any kind of operation … What is this parliament for that you’re taking such a big decision and not consulting the parliament?”
THORN IN THE SIDE
Khan’s PTI is currently part of the parliament under the umbrella of the Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC), which remains a thorn in the side of the fragile coalition government led by PM Shehbaz Sharif.
Weeks before the national election on Feb. 8, ex-PM Imran Khan’s PTI was stripped of its iconic election symbol of the cricket bat on technical grounds, and all its candidates had to contest polls as independent candidates.
After the election in which Khan-backed independents won the most seats overall, they joined the SIC to claim a share in the reserved seats in the parliament for women and religious minorities. Under Pakistan’s election rules, political parties are allotted reserved seats in proportion to the number of parliamentary seats they win in the election. This completes the National Assembly’s total strength of 336 seats.
However, Pakistan’s election commission (ECP) had ruled in March that the Khan-backed SIC party was not eligible for extra reserved seats in the legislature, dealing a blow to the embattled group’s governing prospects and proving to be a major setback for Khan, who is in jail following a string of convictions.
The election regulator’s decision was upheld by the Peshawar High Court but last month the Supreme Court overruled the verdict.
A 13-member bench of the Supreme Court, a full court, is now hearing a set of petitions filed by the chairman of the SIC challenging the denial of the reserved seats to the party and their distribution to other parties in Sharif’s ruling coalition.
