A guest of the prime minister shuttled in the host’s motorcade and taken to a hill-station for a meeting has the opposition benches riled up. Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and Pakistan Peoples Party (PPPP) legislators raised the issue during a meeting of the standing committee on foreign affairs in the national assembly on Friday.

PPP’s Nafisa Shah demanded to know why the Pakistani government was silent on the matter of Sajjan Jindal’s visit to the country.

Sajjan Jindal, an Indian businessman and a personal friend of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had arrived in Pakistan a day earlier, from Afghanistan. According to PTI legislators, Jindal only had a visa that allowed travel to Islamabad and Lahore but he was whisked off to Murree in the prime minister’s motorcade for a meeting.  

PTI’s Shireen Mazari demanded an explanation how Jindal ended up in Murree when his visa did not allow travel to the hill-station. She demanded to know why the Ministry of Foreign Affairs had reports of receiving the Indian businessman if he was on a private visit to the country.

Chairman of the standing committee, Owais Leghari responded to the PTI legislator that Marriyum Aurangzeb, the State Minister for Information and Broadcasting had already explained the government’s position on the matter and directed the legislators to focus on items listed on the agenda.

The PTI and PPP legislators then focused their energies on the matter of former COAS General (retd) Raheel Sharif’s appointment in the Saudi-led Islamic Military Alliance.

Adjournment Motion

Besides raising the issue in the standing committee meeting, another PTI legislator, Murad Saeed submitted an adjournment motion requesting for the suspension of the normal agenda to discuss the matter. Saeed linked Jindal's visit to the “serious national security challenges in the form of News Leaks Scandal and arrest of Indian spy” Kulbushan Jadev and “demand an explanation about the matter from the Prime Minister himself.”