ISLAMABAD: Former Senate chairman and Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) leader Senator Raza Rabbani on Friday questioned the government’s haste to extend support to the Afghan Taliban, when the latter did “not even recognise the border”.
Addressing a senate session, Senator Rabbani asked the foreign minister to take the parliament into confidence about a recent incident in which the new rulers in Afghanistan had reportedly barred Pakistan’s security forces from fencing the border.
Pakistani officials have not commented on the incident so far.
Pakistan has fenced most of the 2,600km border despite protests from Kabul, which has contested the British-era boundary demarcation that splits families and tribes on either side.
Afghan defence ministry spokesman Enayatullah Khwarazmi had said the Taliban forces stopped the Pakistani military from erecting what he called an “illegal” border fence along with the eastern province of Nangarhar on Sunday.
The fencing was the main reason behind the souring of relations between previous US-backed Afghan governments and Islamabad. The current standoff indicates the issue remains a contentious matter for the Taliban, despite its close ties to Islamabad.
“They are not ready to recognise the border, so why are we moving forward?” questioned Rabbani, during the session today.
The PPP senator also expressed alarm over reports that the banned Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) was regrouping in Afghanistan, “which could possibly fuel terrorism in Pakistan”.
“On what terms is the state talking about a ceasefire with the banned group?” he questioned.
He went on to say that the state of Pakistan meant the civil and military bureaucracy of Pakistan and not the people sitting in parliament.
‘Sialkot lynching shook us to the core’
During the session, Senator Azam Nazir Tarar took to the floor to speak about the horrific lynching of Sri Lankan national Priyantha Kumara, a factory manager in Sialkot, saying “the incident has shaken us to the core”.
The senator said the brutality with which the mob killed the Sri Lankan citizen was highly reprehensible.
Tarar said the trend of mob violence and torture had increased with time. “This trend sprang up during the era of Gen Ziaul Haq and it was later fanned for political gains,” he added.
“This is the social apathy we all have to fight against,” Tarar said.
He recalled that two brothers were also lynched in the same city by a mob [in 2010]. He said it was parliament’s responsibility to ensure necessary legislations to provide justice to the downtrodden.
Meanwhile, Senate Chairman Sadiq Sanjrani said a delegation comprising lawmakers from the Upper House will visit Sri Lanka and meet the family of Kumara.
“The delegation will present a resolution passed by the Senate to his family,” Sanjrani said.
 leader Senator Raza Rabbani on Friday questioned the gov){kind=link}