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ISLAMABAD: After a minister’s hesitation to share the number of Pakistani troops who laid down their lives in recent incidents of Indian firing from across the Line of Control (LoC), Senate Chairman Mian Raza Rabbani on Tuesday held that no information could be withheld from parliament.
Minister of State for Water and Power Abid Sher Ali informed the house that as many as 66 civilians had been killed and 288 injured as a result of unprovoked Indian firing from across the LoC, but the number of army troops martyred could not be disclosed due to security reasons.
“We do not want our enemy to know how many soldiers laid down their lives,” he said.
The minister said a letter had been written to the General Headquarters, seeking more details which were expected to be available in a couple of days.
The chairman said the calling attention notice on the matter had appeared on the agenda on Tuesday but it had been with the Senate secretariat for several days and the information should have come by now.
“Will the order of parliament prevail or that of the Ministry of Defence or GHQ?” he asked.
Stressing that no information could be concealed from parliament, he said if the government wanted, the session could be declared in-camera when it would be shared.
He said parliament was supreme and he could not allow hiding of information from the forum.
The chairman ordered that the information be provided to the house during the current session.
He said that if any matter of national security was involved, there were two options: either an in-camera session could be held or the information submitted to the office of the Senate chairman where the members could go through it.
Senator Ateeq Sheikh of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement had moved the notice to draw the government’s attention towards the loss of precious lives of Pakistani citizens in the Indian firing.
https://www.dawn.com/news/1337974/number-of-martyred-troops-cant-be-disclosed-senate-told
Minister of State for Water and Power Abid Sher Ali informed the house that as many as 66 civilians had been killed and 288 injured as a result of unprovoked Indian firing from across the LoC, but the number of army troops martyred could not be disclosed due to security reasons.
“We do not want our enemy to know how many soldiers laid down their lives,” he said.
The minister said a letter had been written to the General Headquarters, seeking more details which were expected to be available in a couple of days.
The chairman said the calling attention notice on the matter had appeared on the agenda on Tuesday but it had been with the Senate secretariat for several days and the information should have come by now.
“Will the order of parliament prevail or that of the Ministry of Defence or GHQ?” he asked.
Stressing that no information could be concealed from parliament, he said if the government wanted, the session could be declared in-camera when it would be shared.
He said parliament was supreme and he could not allow hiding of information from the forum.
The chairman ordered that the information be provided to the house during the current session.
He said that if any matter of national security was involved, there were two options: either an in-camera session could be held or the information submitted to the office of the Senate chairman where the members could go through it.
Senator Ateeq Sheikh of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement had moved the notice to draw the government’s attention towards the loss of precious lives of Pakistani citizens in the Indian firing.
https://www.dawn.com/news/1337974/number-of-martyred-troops-cant-be-disclosed-senate-told
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