A key meeting of the Parliamentary National Security Committee (PCNS) has begun in Parliament, with the main political and military leaders who attended, including Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, the chief of the general army staff also and other officials.
The meeting is also being assisted by provincial leaders, including Punjab Prime Minister Maryam Nawaz, CM Sindh Murad Ali Shah, Baluchistan Prime Minister, Sarfraz Bugti and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, Principal Minister Ali Amin Gandapur, who represented his province in the absence of members of PTI.
The governors and IGP of the four provinces are also in assistance.
However, BNP chief Sardar Akhtar Mengal, was invited but did not attend the meeting.
The opposition, Pakistan Tehreek-E-Insaf (PTI) had previously announced his participation in the deliberations of the committee, but changed his decision on Monday night and linked his assistance in the session to his meeting with the founder of the party.
Speaking at a press conference in the information cell of the Civil Secretariat in Peshawar, PTI Information Secretary Sheikh Waqas Akram had said that the PTI would attend the meeting because it was related to national security.
Akram said terrorist incidents were increasing in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (KP) and that the police were fighting terrorist attacks. He added that if the federal government was thinking of an operation against terrorists, it should take the matter to Parliament first.
“Terrorism can be fought if the nation is with the government and institutions. When terrorists know that the nation is united, they cannot attack,” he said, added: “If an operation against terrorists does not receive public support, the PTI will not support it.”
The high -level security meeting convened in Parliament occurs after the attack last week by the prohibited militants of the Baluchistan Liberation Army (Bla).
The militants attacked train tracks and kept more than 440 passengers as hostages in a confrontation of a day with security forces in a remote mountain pass in the Bolan district.
The army successfully cleared the train and rescued the hostages, informing the murder of 33 attackers during the operation.
Before the rescue mission, the terrorists had killed 26 passengers. In addition, four security personnel lost their lives during the operation to free the hostages.
