Ali Imran
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto on Friday has said that tabling Army Act Amendment Bill 2020 in the National Assembly (NA) is success of the Parliament. Talking to media after the NA session, the PPP leader said that Opposition Leader in NA Shehbaz Sharif should have consulted with other parties before pledging unconditional support to the bill. Earlier today, Defence Minister Pervez Khattak had presented three bills “Pakistan Army (Amendment) Bill 2020,” Pakistan Air Force (Amendment) Bill 2020,” and Pakistan Navy (Amendment) Bill 2020 in the NA today. The proceedings were adjourned till Saturday morning while all three bills based on rules and regulations were also forwarded to the relevant standing committees. On Thursday, government delegation headed by Defence Minister Pervez Khattak held meeting with PML-N leaders and sought their support on Army Act amendment bill. The committee consisting Pervez Khattak, Federal Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Senator Azam Swati and Leader of the House in Senate Syed Shibli Faraz arrived at opposition’s chamber and discussed the matter with Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz’s Khawaja Asif, Sardar Ayaz Sadiq, Rana Tanvir and others. Not only PML-N but Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) had also expressed its support to the amendment bill and assured to assist the government in approving it in the assembly. Federal Minister for Science and Technology Fawad Chaudhry on Friday said that army is an institution of the whole country and politics cannot be done over national organizations. The federal minister talked to media outside the parliament and maintained that the government is moving forward with consensus and hoped that the matter of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) appointments will also be solved with mutual consent.
