Foreign Minister to take Senate into confidence on US-Taliban peace deal   

ISLAMABAD: Leader of the House in Senate Shibli Faraz on Monday assured the opposition lawmakers that Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi would take the Senate into confidence over the country’s role in the United States (US)-Taliban peace deal, ARY NEWS reported.

The Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) senator was responding to a query from Pakistan People’s Party Senator Raza Rabbani who demanded of the foreign minister to take the Senate into confidence over the deal.

“The government should take both the houses of the Parliament seriously,” he said.

Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Senator Raja Zafarul Haq also said that the remarks from the Afghan President Ashraf Ghani on the US-Taliban peace deal were not welcoming.

“Efforts were made earlier also to form a national government in Afghanistan but failed to yield results,” he said and added it would be appropriate if the foreign minister would come and brief the lawmakers on the matter.

To this Shibli Faraz said that they are trying to make contact with the foreign minister and if not today, he would for sure attend the Senate’s proceedings on Tuesday (tomorrow).

Another treasury lawmaker Azam Swati said that the government would brief the Senate on the US-Taliban peace deal for Afghanistan. “Future politics of the entire region is based on the Doha agreement,” he said and added that the foreign policy adopted by the incumbent government should be applauded.

National Power emergency

Meanwhile, responding to Raza Rabbani’s remarks to declare national power emergency, Shibli Faraz said that it should be implemented.

“Even at the time of the crisis, the incumbent government refrained from hiking the electricity prices,” he said and added that when they took power, the circular debt stood at Rs 1.2 billion and now it has further increased.

He said that strict decisions are needed to be taken to avert a crisis.