Pakistan PM Shahid Khaqan Abbasi calls Donald Trump's threat as 'critical issue', hints at Parliament joint session

Islamabad: Pakistan government is planning to summon a joint session of Parliament to discuss and finalise the way forward in the wake of US President Donald Trump’s remarks warning Islamabad against providing safe havens  to terrorists, according to a media report. Dawn News reported that Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi in his brief remarks made in the Senate late on Thursday had indicated that a joint session could be called to deliberate the issue. Abbasi described the US’ stance as a critical issue and said the federal cabinet had deliberated on it for three hours on Tuesday while the NSC discussed the matter for about four hours. [caption id=“attachment_3932819” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  File image of Pakistan prime minister Shahid Khaqqan Abbasi. AP[/caption] Senate Chairman Raza Rabbani had earlier informed the prime minister that a Senate panel had been formed to frame recommendations spelling out the way forward after the US president’s aggressive remarks. He said the panel was on the verge of completing a draft. He proposed that the recommendations be taken to the joint sitting of Parliament for adoption or any amendments, an idea apparently accepted by the prime minister, the report said. Rabbani indicated that after adoption of the draft by the Senate, it would be taken to the joint session of Parliament, it said. Earlier, taking part in the discussion on Trump’s remarks, Senators said the US must remember that Pakistan was a frontline state in the war on terror and had suffered the most. They said the US, that mocked Pakistan for receiving dollars in aid, should keep in mind that it had not given a fraction of the losses incurred by Pakistan in the war amounting to around $150 billion. The Senators said that the educational institutions and health facilities and other infrastructure of Pakistan had badly suffered due to blasts in the country following the then military ruler “General Pervez Musharraf’s complete surrender before the US”, the report said. Besides this, they said, thousands of civilians and armed forces personnel had laid down their lives. Former interior minister Rehman Malik said that the threat emanating from Washington should be taken seriously.