Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: The National Assembly on Tuesday passed a unanimous resolution condemning the Quetta suicide bombing and expressing solidarity with the grieving families.

The resolution urged the government to take action against a handful of terrorists who were disturbing Pakistan’s peace. The resolution moved by Law Minister Zahid Hamid said the entire nation was grieved over the loss of lives in the cowardly suicide attack on people at a hospital in Quetta and the killing of Balochistan Bar President Bilal Anwar Kasi. The resolution prayed for early recovery of those injured in the suicide bombing. The House stands by the people of Balochistan, the legal fraternity, law enforcement agencies and the media in this hour of grief, says the resolution.

Earlier, continuing the debate on the Quetta suicide bombing, federal minister Akram Khan Durrani said it was a tragic incident. He said the attack was aimed at undermining the multi-billion dollar China-Pakistan Economic Corridor. Pakistan People’s Party’s Abdul Sattar Bachani said it was the responsibility of the government and state institutions to protect people’s lives and properties.

Lawmaker Tahira Aurangzeb suggested that assembly members should give their one-month salary to the bereaved families of Quetta. The speaker told her to get signatures of the parliamentarians who were ready to pay their one-month salary to the grieving families and then raise this issue in the House.

Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party President Mehmood Khan Achakzai said that a joint session of the parliament should be convened to review Pakistan’s interior and foreign policies and discuss the fight against terrorism. He said the Quetta incident showed that intelligence agencies had failed completely. He said that blaming foreign intelligence agencies, including India’s, would not solve the problem. He said that intelligence agencies should be told to trace the sanctuaries of terrorists and in case of failure to do so the services of those at the helm of intelligence affairs should be terminated. He asked the government to declare the Quetta incident an attack on Pakistan.