ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif held a meeting with the heads of Parliament on Monday to discuss the developing violent situation in the Occupied-Kashmir and India’s firing along the sectors of LoC.
Setting their differences aside, heads and representatives of major political parties in the country including the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI), Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), PML-Q (Quaid-e-Azam group), Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) Pakistan, Jamaat-e-Islami, PML-Z’s (Zia-ul-Haq group), National Party of Pakistan, Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party, Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam and others are attending the meeting.
Addressing the session the Prime Minister said that today’s session was very important because a unified message from the political leadership of Pakistan will be sent out, sources said.
They have assured Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) of their complete support on major national issues.
Interestingly, Sheikh Rasheed of Awami Muslim League (AML) has not been invited.
The premier started the meeting on a positive note by welcoming the political parties’ heads himself at the PM Secretariat.
He welcomed PPP’s Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, PTI’s Shah Mehmood Qureshi and Shireen Mazari, Ghulam Ahmed Bilour, Mehmood Khan Achakzai, Dr Farooq Sattar and others along with Defence Minister Khawaja Asif and Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan.
“The aim of the meeting is to develop a consensus on the issue of Kashmir and ongoing Indian aggression along the LoC and to come up with a clear strategy,” said the prime minister at the start of the meeting in Islamabad today.
“Today’s meeting is extremely important and I am glad that we all are on one page over the matter of Kashmir,” he added.
He said that after Burhan Wani’s death the Kashmir issue had become a flash point, sources added.
He added that the United Nations should take up Kashmir as an issue which threatens peace in the region, sources said.
PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari said his party supported the government on the Kashmir issue. Bilawal said they would stand shoulder to shoulder with the prime minister when it came to Indian aggression.
Foreign Secretary Aizaz Chaudhry briefed the participants of the meeting on the situation of human rights violations in the held Kashmir.
He said India was in a state of confusion when Kashmiris responded forcefully for their freedom particularly after Indian forces killed Burhan Wani – a young Kashmiri separatist leader.
India had to backtrack after making the ‘Indus Water Treaty’ an issue, the foreign secretary said.
The Foreign Office has reacted strongly to the incident claiming that India is continuously violating the border agreement.
Tensions between the two countries have mounted following an attack on Uri.