The National Assembly session resumed after the Maghrib break on Monday with an intense and wide-ranging debate on terrorism, national security, and regional dynamics, as lawmakers from treasury and opposition benches voiced grave concerns over the recent wave of violence in the country.
PPP leader Abdul Qadir Patel said Sindh had cancelled all public events in the wake of recent incidents, warning that the country could not afford to “live in a dream rabbit hole” while enemies were openly threatening Pakistan’s stability. “Our enemy is saying it can capture Balochistan whenever it wants to. The question is when will we finally take action,” he said.
PTI leader Asad Qaiser lamented the continuous loss of lives, saying nearly 300 people had been killed in the last three weeks. “These incidents are highly condemnable. We are debating here but there is practically no result,” he said, criticizing closed-door policymaking and calling for all political parties to be taken on board in national security decisions.
Opposition Leader Mahmood Khan Achakzai delivered a historical perspective, recalling how Pakistan became a frontline state during the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. He said the consequences of that war were still being faced today. “We are living in a very cruel world. People have been trained to kill. We must sit together and talk for ourselves and run this country with justice,” he urged. He also criticized the weakening of institutions, saying parliament, courts, and media had all had their “wings clipped.”
Former Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf described the Tarlai terrorist incident as proof that “Pakistan is under attack” and said the country was in a state of war. He alleged that India was using Afghanistan to spread terrorism in Pakistan after failing to defeat it in conventional warfare. “We have to tell India with one voice that you are a terrorist,” he said, adding that national unity was the country’s greatest weapon.
Ashraf called for immediate dialogue within the House and urged that India should have been directly challenged from Islamabad following the attack. “This is an attack on all of us. India wants to destabilize Pakistan economically through terrorism,” he said.
Defence Minister Khawaja Asif offered a candid reflection on Pakistan’s historical involvement in Afghanistan, saying the country had been drawn into superpower conflicts that were not its own. “We fought a ‘Made in America’ jihad and learned no lesson from it,” he said, adding that Pakistan had remained “on rent for two decades.”
He said Pakistan must acknowledge its past and learn from history, stressing that religious hatred was never part of the country’s national culture but was later fueled. “We must consider this soil as our origin and stop looking for sponsorship from Washington, Moscow or elsewhere,” he remarked.
Khawaja Asif said Pakistan was currently in a state of war and there should be no doubt about it. “My religion is a message of love. What these terrorists are doing has nothing to do with religion,” he said, adding that Pakistan had enough resources to solve its problems if unity and clarity prevailed.
He also referred to past engagements with Afghanistan, stating that despite multiple rounds of talks, guarantees regarding security concerns had not been fully ensured.
Throughout the session, lawmakers repeatedly stressed the need for national unity, open dialogue, and collective decision-making to confront terrorism and external threats, calling for a unified political response to safeguard Pakistan’s integrity.