CHAIRMAN Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Bilawal Bhutto Zardari has urged Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif to convene a high-level security conference again in the light of the resurgence of terrorism in the country.
Speaking at a gathering of PPP leaders at the Governor’s House Lahore on Monday, Bilawal stressed the need for an inclusive national security meeting, ensuring the participation of all political parties, including those who had previously opted out.
The PPP leader has not clarified whether he wants another meeting of the Parliamentary Committee on National Security (which met only last week and adopted a strong declaration expressing will of the nation to fight the menace of terrorism) or an All Parties Conference (APC) on the issue of terrorism but his proposal is surely motivated by his sincere desire to forge national consensus against a grave challenge.
In fact, the opposition PTI and its allies were also invited to attend the important moot but they opted to stay away, mainly on political considerations.
The proposal of Mr Bilawal is apparently aimed at affording another opportunity to the PTI to join national effort to address the security situation but reaction of the party is unpredictable.
Though a PTI leader Ali Muhammad, in his personal opinion, said his party should have attended the PCNS meeting but at the same time the party and its allies have announced plans to convene an APC of their own on the issue.
Mindful of the intricacies of the issue, the PPP leader has offered to mediate between the government and opposition on matters of national security and the two sides should welcome this offer.
