Lawmakers Create a Security Council

Pakistan’s upper house of parliament approved the creation of a National Security Council, a move opposition leaders said would cement the military’s role in politics.

The bill passed in the Senate while opposition members of parliament were out of the chamber, having stormed out in protest over a separate issue.

The government of Prime Minister Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali has said the security council would have only an advisory role in politics, and would include provincial governors, members of the opposition and senior military officers. But the opposition counters that the council -- to be headed by President Pervez Musharraf, a general who took power in a 1999 coup -- will run the country and override civilian leaders.