Daily Times

Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari on Monday called on the government to make public all facts about the controversy surrounding Zulfi Bukhari’s reported visit to Israel.

Speaking to reporters in Parliament, he said that it would be very easy for the government to make public the flight manifest and flight path of the airplane that allegedly carried Bukhari to Israel during those dates.

Reports had recently emerged that Zulfi Bukhari had met Israeli officials at the Tel Aviv airport in November after getting approval for the visit from the US. “If the airplane did not pick up Zulfi Bukhari then who was taken on board?” questioned Bilawal, adding that he feels that ‘something is fishy’. He asked media to also investigate whether Bukhari travelled to Israel via other countries on a plane that he said reportedly stayed in Israel for 10 hours.

The PPP chairperson also claimed that he had information about another meeting involving National Security Adviser Dr Moeed Yusuf with Israeli officials, in which he said the PPP has ‘serious questions’ to which it wants answers. “We have no objections; whatever the government’s policy is, it should at least make it public. We have serious concerns about doing such things in the dark of the night,” he added.

Separately, Bilawal Bhutto welcomed National Assembly Speaker Asad Qaiser’s decision to call a meeting of the National Security Committee (NSC) on Afghanistan and announced that he will attend the briefing. “I had demanded on the floor of the House that the Parliament be briefed on the Afghanistan situation by the relevant departments and institutions,” he tweeted, and welcomed Speaker Qaiser’s decision and said that he will participate in the meeting on Afghanistan.

Speaking to media outside the Parliament House, Bilawal claimed that the speaker had summoned a meeting of the NSC on his party’s recommendation, a private TV channel reported. He also said that he does not consider Imran Khan’s comments on giving military bases to the US after the withdrawal of NATO troops. “We will keep our point of view over giving military bases in the NSC committee,” he said, and also claimed that the NSC was formed on the recommendation of the PPP.

Earlier in the day it emerged that a session of the National Assembly’s National Security Committee has been summoned for a briefing on the latest situation and regional issues amid the withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan. NA Speaker Asad Qaiser will chair the in-camera meeting convening on July 1 at 3pm. Interior Minister Sheikh Rasheed, Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi and Defence Minister Pervaiz Khattak will also be part of the proceedings. Issues related to national security will be on the agenda. Leader of the Opposition Shehbaz Sharif, PPP chairperson Bilawal Bhutto and other lawmakers have also been invited. Senate Chairman Sadiq Sanjrani, federal ministers and parliamentarians have been specially invited for the briefing. The meeting will also discuss the current situation in Afghanistan and its impact on Pakistan.