Pakistan Army answerable to Parliament: Secretary Defense

Secretary Defense Lt Gen (retd) Syed Athar Ali Khan told the National Assembly Standing Committee and Defense and Defense production that the army is answerable to the parliament and we are bound to answer question raised by the parliamentarians.

The committee meeting chaired by Chairman Javed Ashraf Qazi was attended by Maulana Mohd Khan Sherani, Sardar Khan, Haji Adeel Ahmed and Tariq Azeem besides Secretary defense and DG Operation and Plan manager Gen Tahir Asharf Khan.

The representatives of the three armed forces briefed the committee about the relief activities and told that a total of 14 million population has been affected by the floods and 14 districts have been affected. More than 72 thousand Army Jawans participated in the relief operation, more than 868,000 people were rescued and 217 relief camps have been set up by the army.

Pakistan Navy Commodore Sohail Ahmed told that first of all the relief activities had been launched in Khyber Pakhtoonkhawa (KP) adding rescue work was concluded in KP till August, 3. NDMA had acquired 10 boats from UAE and delivered to us in connection with relief activities. “We have rescued 22409 persons from Kashmore, 40212 from Ghotki, 14598 from Sukkar and 23562 persons from Khairpur”, he indicated .

Pakistan Navy had so far delivered relief goods weighing 517220 kilogram to relief camps which included medicines over 20 tones.

Air Commodore Muhammad Ashfaq Arain of air force told the committee air force dispatched 1840 tone relief goods to the flood ravaged areas while relief goods from 38 countries had arrived through 148 flights. “ We have shifted 176000 persons to safety, he added. As many as 5 C-130 planes are bringing relief goods daily from US to Pakistan, he told.

During the relief operation briefing in the meeting of Senate standing committee on Defence Production, senator Haji Adeel and Maj Gen Tahir Ashraf traded bitter words and later the matter was settled on the intervention of defence secretary.

During the briefing senator Haji Adeel repeatedly asked about the non provision of relief goods to the affectees. Upon it Maj Gen Tahir Ashraf told he had not come there for his accountability nor for any postmortem and only was there to give briefing.

Senator Haji Adeel said army was accountable to parliament adding he should not talk like this as democratic order was in place in the country and martial law had not been imposed. Therefore, he should not talk in this tenor as he was sitting in the parliament. When the matter stared coming out of control, defence secretary Lt Gen (Retd) Athar Ali intervened and settled the matter.

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on Sep 1 2010. Filed under Local. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.