Rabbani calls for joint sitting on Balochistan

ISLAMABAD: Former Senate chairman Mian Raza Rabbani has termed “ill-founded” the idea of the opposition for calling an all parties conference (APC) on Balochistan issue, saying that the Balochistan issue should be discussed in Parliament rather than in an APC.

“A joint sitting of Parliament should be summoned immediately on the issue of Balochistan wherein, a detailed in-camera briefing should be given and subsequently followed by a discussion and recommendations thereof,” he said in a statement on Friday.

Rabbani said the working paper before the government and Parliament should the Aghaz-e-Huqooq-e-Balochistan which was passed by Parliament in 2011-12. “This document addresses all the political, economic and administrative issues confronting the province,” he added.

He said the APC on the question of Balochistan will be a negation of the parliamentary procedure and will be a slur on the sovereignty of Parliament.

He said the issues confronting by the federating units cannot be discussed outside, and permanent solutions can be found in Parliament.

Rabbani demanded that the government should use the upcoming parliamentary session for this purpose.