ISLAMABAD: The government vehemently denied in the National Assembly on Tuesday making a policy shift over the Syrian crisis from neutrality to a pro-rebel tilt, but could hardly convince its opponents, who piled more blame on it for following what they saw as a dubious foreign policy.

Sartaj Aziz, the prime minister’s adviser on national security and foreign affairs, read out a prepared statement to reject what he called a “totally baseless and misleading” impression given in the house on Monday by some opposition lawmakers, some of whom saw signs of a policy about-turn after a visit to Pakistan last week by Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Salman bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud.

The opposition charges were based on the wording of a joint Pakistan-Saudi declaration calling for the “formation of a transitional governing body” with full executive powers as part of a solution to the bloody Syrian civil war and foreign media reports that Saudi Arabia was talking to Pakistan to provide anti-aircraft and anti-tank rockets to the rebels.

Mr Aziz said the call for a “transitional governing body”, which the opposition saw as a demand for regime change, was in line with Pakistan’s “declared position” and what was prescribed by the “international community” at the so-called “Geneva-I” conference of June 2012 involving a UN mediator, five permanent members of the Security Council and the Arab League. He also insisted that Pakistan was not going to supply arms for use in the Syrian conflict, though in some off-the-cuff remarks later, he said “no weapons are going at the official level”, and then added: “There is neither any change in foreign policy nor any weapons are being supplied.”

But Naveed Qamar of the PPP said the adviser’s statement had only confirmed opposition fears, and asked when Pakistan earlier said there should be regime change in Syria.

Shireen Mazari of the Pakistan Tehrik-i-Insaf said Pakistan had “moved away from our position of neutrality”, while Awami Muslim League leader Sheikh Rashid Ahmed claimed that “recruitment of private forces has already begun here” for being sent to Syria.

Another PPP member, Nafisa Shah, taking part in a discussion on foreign policy on a motion tabled by a party colleague on the present session’s first private members’ day, wondered why Syria was mentioned in the joint Pakistan-Saudi declaration if the crown prince’s visit was bilateral.

The discussion was also used by opposition members to criticise the government’s foreign policy, with Ms Shah calling it “confused” and “shrouded in mystery”, while PTI’s Shafqat Mahmood complained that it lacked clarity.

JOINT SESSION?

Leader of the Opposition Khursheed Ahmed Shah interrupted the debate to refer to what he called the talk about Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif coming to the National Assembly on Wednesday to announce his next move to deal with the Taliban militants after the collapse of peace talks and proposed that instead a joint session of the two houses of parliament be held for the purpose.

But both Speaker Sardar Ayaz Sadiq and the Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs, Sheikh Aftab Ahmed, said they had no information about the prime minister coming on Wednesday. Mr Ahmed promised to convey to the prime minister the opposition leader’s proposal.

The house saw some tense moments after a member of the ruling PML-N, retired major Tahir Iqbal, with obvious blessings of his party, introduced a private bill seeking to take Islamabad’s main government hospital – Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences – from the purview of the proposed Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto Medical University to be set up in Islamabad under a bill passed last year.

Although all opposition parties, except the Jamaat-i-Islami, opposed it, the house’s majority allowed the introduction of the bill, which will now go to a house standing committee for vetting.

The house also allowed introduction of two private bills by PML-N’s Marvi Memon – one seeking a constitutional amendment to declare regional languages as national languages and the other seeking harmonisation of existing laws with the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child – and another by PML-N member Suraiyya Asghar seeking to amend the Control of Narcotics Act, 1997, to make local officials like assistant commissioners and police station heads responsible for checking sale of narcotics in their jurisdictions.