Govt urged to brief parliament on decision to skip Malaysia summit

ISLAMABAD: Criticising Prime Minister Imran Khan for cancelling his planned visit to Malaysia at the eleventh hour, the opposition has asked the government to brief parliament as to why Pakistan has decided to skip the Kuala Lumpur summit soon after the PM’s visit to Saudi Arabia. Terming it a sensitive issue”, PPP information secretary Dr Nafisa Shah, who is an outspoken member of the National Assembly, said in a statement on Wednesday that any decision made while keeping parliament in the dark would not be acceptable to the opposition. “The cancellation of the Malaysia visit of the ‘selected prime minister’ is a very serious issue,” Dr Shah said and asked the government to bring the matter to parliament for a debate. Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi had announced on Tuesday that there would be no representation from Pakistan at the summit of some 20 Muslim countries which started in Kuala Lumpur on Wednesday. Pakistan was one of the first countries with which Malaysian Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohammad shared his plans for holding the summit when he met PM Khan along with Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly session in New York in September. PPP terms PM’s ‘secret decisions’ bad omen for Pakistan; PMLN believes the move shows Imran’s dithering conduct of foreign policy Later, PM Khan formally conveyed his acceptance of the invitation for attending the summit when Deputy Foreign Minister of Malaysia Marzuki Bin Haji Yahya called on him in Islamabad on Nov 29. After Imran Khan’s recent visit to Saudi Arabia, reportedly due to pressure exerted by the kingdom, which had extended a helping hand to the Pakistan Tehreeki-Insaf government during its early days to stave off economic crisis, the PM decided to stay away from the Kuala Lumpur summit.