Pakistan People’s Party Senator Farhatullah Babar on Friday resigned as a member of the Senate’s Standing Committee on Defence due to ‘personal reasons’.
Speaking to The Nation after quitting the membership, the lawmaker said he will stay as a member of the Senate and had only quit the membership of the committee.
“I have not quit as a senator. I don’t want to go in details why I resigned as member of the Senate’s Standing Committee on Defence. The reasons are personal,” he said.
Babar, however, said he was against the parliamentarians briefing the military leaders at the General Headquarters but “this is not the reason for my resignation.”
He said: “To be honest, I did not even go to the recent briefing where the senators visited the GHQ for a meeting with the military people.”
The lawmaker said in principle he was against such briefing by the lawmakers to the generals at the military facilities. “This has always been my policy. I never attended such briefings. I think, they (the military officers) should visit us if they want any meetings,” he said.
Babar was elected as senator in March 2012 and will retire in March 2018. He has been replaced by PPP's Farooq H Naek in the committee.
Last month, the members of the Senate and National Assembly defence committees had visited the GHQ and met with Army Chief Qamar Javed Bajwa. During that meeting, Gen Bajwa had said he wanted regular interaction with parliamentarians. Earlier in the day, PPP General Secretary Central Punjab Nadeem Afzal Chan had resigned from his party post.
Chan claimed he should not hold a senior post in the party after his brother Waseem Afzal Chan joined the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf. In his resignation letter, Chan assured the leadership that he will not quit the party. Party sources said that Chan’s resignation had been rejected by both PPP Chairman Bilawal Bilawal Bhutto and Co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari. “Nadeem Chan has been asked by the leadership to continue as the party’s central Punjab general secretary,” a close aide to the Bhutto family told The Nation.
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