LAHORE: Senate Chair­man Raza Rabbani has stressed the need for dialogue among state institutions, but asserted that all institutions are subordinate to parliament.

Dialogue, he said, was extremely necessary beca­use the country would not be able to move forward without it, but parliament must be held supreme in the process because it was above all institutions.

Mr Rabbani was speaking at the launching of a book, “Pakistan: The Way For­ward”, written by Afnan Khan.

Also read: Rabbani stresses dialogue for supremacy of Constitution

Information Minister Pervaiz Rashid, Minister for Planning Ahsan Iqbal and former foreign minister Sardar Aseff Ahmed Ali also spoke on the occasion.

The country, Mr Rabbani warned, could not afford more experiments, could not afford anymore dictatorship. He disagreed strongly with a proposal made in the book that the National Security Council should be made a supra-parliament body.

“The concept was actively experimented during the Musharraf regime, but failed.”

The Senate chairman also criticised a suggestion that efforts to end Indian influence in Afghanistan should be made in cooperation with Taliban.

According to him, making a distinction between `good’ and`bad’ Taliban was against the vision of Quaid-i-Azam and social values of Pakistan because that would promote sectarianism and extremism.

Reiterating his stance on accountability, he said that process should be across the board. There should be `no sacred cows’ and no discrimination in the process of dealing with the issue.

“I admit that there are corrupt elements among the political class, but are not such elements present among civil and military bureaucrats,” he said, adding that special (anti-corruption) courts and laws should not be there only for politicians.

Mr Rashid criticised the school curriculum in the country and said it had created narrow-mindedness and a militant mindset.

“Our own blunders are responsible for the backwardness of the Muslim world in general and Pakistan in particular,” he said.

Mr Ahsan Iqbal said that political stability and continuity of policies would ensure development and progress of the country.

Published in Dawn, December 5th, 2015