ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s main opposition party, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), on Tuesday boycotted a key security meeting called to discuss the country’s current security situation. National Assembly Speaker Ayaz Sadiq chaired a closed-door meeting of the parliamentary committee on national security after the March 11 hijacking of a train by outlawed Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) rebels. Former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan’s party, the PTI, boycotted the meeting. Khan is currently in jail. The BLA had hijacked a train in Balochistan’s Bolan area, carrying around 425 passengers. The meeting, called on the advice of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, was attended by key ministers, leaders of various political parties, provincial chief ministers, governors and Army Chief General Asim Munir. The military leadership briefed the parliamentary committee on the current security situation. Details of the discussions in the meeting were not immediately available. However, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) refused to attend the meeting despite the government invitation as the party had demanded a meeting with 72-year-old Khan before the meeting. The government did not accede to the demand. The PTI-led opposition alliance Tehreek-e-Tahafuz Ain Pakistan (TTP) also distanced itself from the meeting. TTAP chief Mehmood Khan Achakzai demanded in a press conference that Khan be invited to the meeting. He said that “the founder of PTI should also be invited because without him, any meeting will have no significance,” Achakzai is also the head of the ethnic Pashtunkhwa Milli Awami Party. He said that representatives of every political party should be invited to any meeting related to national security. He said that a joint session of parliament was needed in Pakistan’s dire situation. Everyone should get a chance to speak in the joint session. In addition to the Jafar Express train hijacking and the attack on a security forces convoy in Nushki, insurgents targeted police and other security agencies in several attacks in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province last week. The security situation in the two provinces of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan remains precarious, where militants affiliated with the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and BLA have carried out attacks on security personnel and civilians.