Pakistan government under pressure for hiding details of Pathankot attack probe

Pakistan government has come under fire from the opposition which accused it of hiding the details of the probe into Pakistani nationals' involvement in the Pathankot terror attack, prompting Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to announce that the findings would be made public. Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) senator Farhatullah Babar during a session of Senate, upper house of parliament, yesterday lambasted the Sharif government over its failure to respond to his query about details of the January 2 attack on the Indian airbase.

The Express Tribune reported that the senator accused the government of misleading the Senate by deliberately concealing information from them and went to the extent of alleging that the government was patronising militants. "Why else did the government not share details of the investigation into the alleged involvement of Pakistani nationals in the Pathankot attack with the House?" He said government had failed to respond to question asked four months ago.

"Has the Indian government provided any facts/information to the Pakistani government? And what is the latter doing in this regard?" he had asked. The queries, however, went unanswered. This prompted Prime Minister Sharif to announce that the findings of the probe would be made public.

However, Babar said that he had raised the question four months ago and yet the question had been deferred each time since then. Before the minister in-charge could speak up, Leader of the House, Senator Raja Zafarul Haq stood up and strongly opposed the conclusion drawn by the senator. "The minister will reply to your question, but it is not appropriate to attack anyone's intention," he said.

Minister of State for Interior and Narcotics Balighur Rehman regretted the delay as the issue in question involved the Foreign Office and some other agencies. "The reply will definitely be submitted soon". He reiterated that the National Action Plan was being implemented and said terrorist incidents, on average, had come down due to that. He dispelled the notion that the government was hiding any information from the House.