ISLAMABAD: The Senate Committee on Rules of Procedure and Privileges Tuesday reviewed the matter of breach of privilege of the Senate chairman as the acting president of Pakistan during his visit to Karachi.
The committee also reviewed other privilege motions that also included the matters of the PIA.
The meeting was held here at the Parliament House, under the chairmanship of Senator Dr Jehanzeb Jamaldini and was attended by Senators Attaur Rehman, Muzaffar Hussain Shah, Dr Syed Asif Saeed Kirmani, Ms. Nighat Mirza and Muhammad Azam Khan Swati as mover of a privilege motion.
On the matter of breach of privilege of the chairman as the president, the Sindh police IG and the DC East Karachi adopted the stance that they were not intimated of the visit and that was the reason why they were not able to make the necessary arrangements. The Sindh chief Secretary and the DG Protocol of government of Sindh did not attend the meeting after repeated serving of the notice.
In response to the privilege motion of Senator Azam Khan Swati, the mover was of the opinion that the tender process adopted in the said constituency was not transparent and that there were many embezzlements in the utilisation of funds and as a member of community he has every right to review the documents such as EOI, tender process documents, etc. The officials made a commitment that year-wise relevant documents will be given to the member for his review.
On the two motions regarding PIA it was directed that the PIA officials should be summoned for the next meeting and they should brief on the matters listed in the motions. “They should also explain why they did not respond to in time to the queries of the committee.” The committee also directed them to submit their brief/working paper well before the date of the meeting so that the members can read it.
On the privilege motion of senators on the matter of a calling attention notice, special secretary of interior stated that answer that was submitted in the House in writing was based on the information that they could get in short time from the Balochistan government and what minister stated in the House was as per his own personal initiatives and that this was the reason of the difference in the two. The chairman suggested that there should be better coordination between the Ministry of Interior and the provincial governments. Subsequently, the motion was disposed of.
In response to the breach of privilege of house regarding a draft of bill by Petroleum Ministry it was submitted by the officials of the ministry that the person in discussion i.e. Rashid Sultan is a legal consultant for the ministry and not an employee of World Bank. They further submitted that the draft bill is not a draft per se rather only the recommendations of a subcommittee on legal matters, which is constituted under the broader scope of energy reforms that are under consideration and deliberation in the CCI. It was further decided that a separate meeting will held to have the briefing on the recommendations of World Bank that was hired as an International Consultant in the process.
Published in Daily Times, January 3rd 2018.
