But he did not indicate when he would call the conference for which he said “we will first do homework” and talk to each party separately, in remarks after the upper house unanimously adopted a flagship pro-poor government bill named after the assassinated PPP leader Benazir Bhutto.
“That will be a national policy against terrorism,” the prime minister said about the possible outcome of the APC, without clarifying whether it would mean altering or advancing what the government calls its policy of “three-Ds” – dialogue, development and deterrence – applied so far in tackling Taliban militants in the Malakand division of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and the adjacent Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata).
It was in a telephone talk between them early this month that Mr Sharif made the APC proposal, which Mr Gilani said he had “accepted readily” to take the country’s political leadership into confidence on issues such as violence in Balochistan, target killings in Karachi and what he called the “scenario in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab”.
The prime minister’s remarks came when a senior PML-N senator, Raja Zafarul Haq, suggested that Mr Gilani should have an “exchange of views” with parliamentary leaders on the government’s anti-terrorism strategy that he said needed to be reviewed.
The Senate vote, without any opposition, on the Benazir Income
Support Programme (BISP) Bill, which was passed by the National Assembly on June 28, now leaves only a formal signature by President Asif Ali Zardari to make the 25-clause draft into a permanent law with his wife’s name inscribed on it.
The programme which the bill said sought “to provide financial assistance and other social protection and safety net measures to economically distressed persons and families has already been in operation under a presidential ordinance.
The PML-N had sought to rename the BISP in the National Assembly as Qaumi (national) Income Support Programme but withdrew its amendment after loud protests from PPP members.
No such move was made in the Senate although PML-N’s Pervaiz
Rashid objected to what he saw as a waste of money in frequent media advertisements of the programme, to which the prime minister agreed in his remarks later while assuring the house that there would be no political discrimination in the distribution of funds.
“That will be a national policy against terrorism,” the prime minister said about the possible outcome of the APC, without clarifying whether it would mean altering or advancing what the government calls its policy of “three-Ds” – dialogue, development and deterrence – applied so far in tackling Taliban militants in the Malakand division of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and the adjacent Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata).
It was in a telephone talk between them early this month that Mr Sharif made the APC proposal, which Mr Gilani said he had “accepted readily” to take the country’s political leadership into confidence on issues such as violence in Balochistan, target killings in Karachi and what he called the “scenario in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab”.
The prime minister’s remarks came when a senior PML-N senator, Raja Zafarul Haq, suggested that Mr Gilani should have an “exchange of views” with parliamentary leaders on the government’s anti-terrorism strategy that he said needed to be reviewed.
The Senate vote, without any opposition, on the Benazir Income
Support Programme (BISP) Bill, which was passed by the National Assembly on June 28, now leaves only a formal signature by President Asif Ali Zardari to make the 25-clause draft into a permanent law with his wife’s name inscribed on it.
The programme which the bill said sought “to provide financial assistance and other social protection and safety net measures to economically distressed persons and families has already been in operation under a presidential ordinance.
The PML-N had sought to rename the BISP in the National Assembly as Qaumi (national) Income Support Programme but withdrew its amendment after loud protests from PPP members.
No such move was made in the Senate although PML-N’s Pervaiz
Rashid objected to what he saw as a waste of money in frequent media advertisements of the programme, to which the prime minister agreed in his remarks later while assuring the house that there would be no political discrimination in the distribution of funds.
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