ISLAMABAD: Sniffer dogs for the security of the Prime Minister House made their presence felt in the National Assembly on Saturday when an opposition member vilified the government for the unnecessary spending on their purchase and getting it approved by the parliament.

Referring to a supplementary grant of Rs2.4 million spent on the purchase of six sniffer dogs for the PM House, Shazia Marri of the PPP said while the entire country was burning, the government only seemed concerned about protection of the country’s chief executive.

The mention of the chief executive (Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif) by Ms Marri ruffled feathers of a few ruling lawmakers who wanted to retort. However, the speaker disallowed them.

While Tehmina Daultana shouted at Ms Marri for taking up the issue of sniffer dogs, minister for defence production Rana Tanvir said the government was willing to provide as many dogs as she (Ms Marri) required.

Continuing with her speech, Ms Marri said: “I am not saying that the government shouldn’t take necessary measures for the safety of the Prime Minister House. But what about the rest of the country? We do need same sniffer dogs for the Karachi airport which recently suffered a terrorist attack. Sindh, Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa are also suffering at the hands of terrorists. They also need the same level of attention.”

Hitting out at the government for what she said taking cosmetic measures to deal with the menace of terrorism, Ms Marri asked whether the government had forgotten its much talked about new Internal Security Policy (ISP).

At the time of ISP’s presentation before the house early this year, Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan had sought appreciation from the opposition benches for the initiative of the government, added Ms Marri. “But I don’t see separate allocation for the ISP.”

Addressing the interior minister, she said the PPP would definitely appreciate his efforts once he implemented this policy.

She also attacked the Punjab government, saying they were ignoring extremists’ breeding grounds in South Punjab. “The time has come to address the root cause of the problem,” she added.

Published in Dawn, June 22nd , 2014