Pakistan secures purchase of Saab AWACS system

Government secures purchase of VVIP planes, SAAB system
Wednesday, December 21, 2005 Daily Times
By Zulfiqar Ghuman

ISLAMABAD: The Senate standing committee on defence, in the absence of its members belonging to the opposition on Tuesday, retracted from its earlier stance and asked the government to go ahead with the proposed purchase of VVIP planes and SAAB surveillance system from Sweden.

The committee meeting, which was held at the Parliament House and presided over by Senator Nisar A Memon, called for the requisition of four treasury members to review its earlier recommendations. Those who requisitioned the meeting included Kamil Ali Agha, Naeem Hussain Chattha, Asif Jatoi and Muhammad Akram. However, Kamil Ali Agha did not attend the meeting. It is believed that the government has manipulated the move through the Ministry of Defence, as Federal Minister for Defence Rao Sikandar Iqbal, State Minister for Defence Zahid Hamid and senior officials of the ministry were also present in the meeting.

In its December 16 meeting, the committee had unanimously decided to recommend to the government the immediate cancellation of the purchase of VVIP planes and surveillance system worth over $1 billion. Two treasury members, Jatoi and Chattha, were among those members who endorsed the earlier recommendations.

PPP-P Spokesman Senator Farhatullah Babar, who is also a member of the committee, told Daily Times that he received the notice of the meeting on Monday evening with the agenda items finalised by the committee to table its recommendations before the Senate. “It is unprecedented that only three members of the committee met hurriedly with a view to reversing the December 16 meeting’s recommendations. The meeting was called against the rules. Significantly, PML Secretary-General Mushahid Hussain Sayed, who is also a committee member and helped prepare the earlier recommendations, did not attend the meeting,” he added.

He said they (opposition parties) would protest the decision of the government senators and raise the issue in the forthcoming Senate session. “We will also press the chairman to make the earlier recommendations public,” Senator Babar said. The opposition members were of the view that money incurred on the purchase of these planes should be diverted to the relief work in the quake-affected areas where it was urgently needed. He said Mushahid had also praised Nisar A. Memon for bringing about the unanimous recommendations during the last meeting. Daily Times could contact neither of these senators, despite repeated efforts.

Meanwhile, a press release issued by the Senate Secretariat quoted Nisar A. Memon as saying that he called the meeting of the committee on the pursuance of the members. “Detailed presentations have already been given by the ministry in the previous meetings and the important information has been provided to them,” it added. It further said the comments of the members present in the meeting supported the government proposal regarding the purchase of planes and the surveillance system.