Islamabad: Pakistan Muslim League(PML-N) Vice President Maryam Nawaz on Wednesday said that political decisions about Pakistan should be made in the parliament, not at the General Headquarters (GHQ).
Maryam Nawaz said this in Islamabad where she had come to attend a hearing in the Islamabad High Court regarding an appeal against her conviction in the Avenfield property reference. She said this in reference to a question from a reporter about Army Chief Gen Qamar Bajwa and head of the ISI Lt Gen Faiz Hameed holding a meeting with key opposition figures, Dawn News reported.
"I don't know about a dinner, maybe it was not a dinner [but] I heard about the meeting. From what I understand it was called to discuss Gilgit-Baltistan which is a political issue, an issue of the people's representatives, for them to solve and deliberate upon.
"These decisions should be made in parliament, not in GHQ," she said.
Earlier in the week, reports emerged that the army chief and the head of the ISI had held a meeting with key opposition figures before their multiparty conference where they counselled them to refrain from dragging the military into political issues.
The September 16 meeting was attended by as many as 15 opposition figures including Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly Shehbaz Sharif, PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari, Jamaat-i-Islami emir Sirajul Haq, ANP’s Amir Haider Hoti, JUI-F’s Asad Mahmood, PML-N leaders Khawaja Asif and Ahsan Iqbal, PPP’s Senator Sherry Rehman and a few government ministers.
Railways Minister Sheikh Rashid, while confirming the meeting and its participants in a conversation with Dawn, had said the meeting was held to discuss the impending changes in the constitutional status of Gilgit-Baltistan.
However, the opposition had used this opportunity to flag its concerns about other matters, especially the military’s alleged interference in politics and allegations of persecution of its leaders on the pretext of accountability.
The timing of the meeting was linked to the opposition’s multiparty conference held on September 20 where Nawaz had bitterly criticised the Army, saying there was “a state above the state in the country”.
Rashid had said the army chief told the participants of the meeting that the Army was not in any manner linked to the political processes within the country and had no involvement in matters concerning election reforms and accountability.
The army chief, however, had said the military only responds to calls for assistance by the elected civilian government and it would continue doing so irrespective of who is in office, thereby reserving the right to military interference in the country's political process.
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