Senate sees fiery debate on Fawad’s arrest

ISLAMABAD: The arrest of senior PTI leader Fawad Chaudhry echoed in the Senate on Thursday, as the party members poured scorn on the Election Commission of Pakistan and chief election commissioner, while the treasury insisted his was a constitutional post and must not be criticised.

Responding to the Opposition Leader Dr Shahzad Waseem’s speech, ex-prime minister and PPP leader Yusuf Raza Gilani said Fawad Chaudhry had been a member of his cabinet and the minister concerned should respond to the issue of his arrest. He emphasized that the caretaker setup and the office of chief election commissioner were constitutional positions and there should be no criticism of them.

Earlier, prior to the start of the Question-Hour, Dr Shahzad Waseem said Fawad had passed the remarks about the conduct of ECP and had not broken the law, but it seemed it broke the ECP’s heart. He contended that the ECP was supposed to maintain impartiality and desist from taking steps that set an impression of bias.

He said the Election Commission always expressed its readiness to hold elections within 60-90 days but it never appeared to be ready to do this constitutional job.

“We do not see both the things happening, as despite all reservations expressed by the PTI, the ECP picked up a controversial person as caretaker chief minister of Punjab. We believe he was not eligible to hold the public office after entering a plea bargain. Everybody knows whose frontman he has been and what he is famous for,” he noted.

The opposition leader claimed that he was one of the characters behind the regime change drama and “by appointing such a controversial person as caretaker chief minister, the rulers have put question mark on fair elections.”

He warned against derailment of democracy if the elections were rigged and minority was imposed on the majority through a fraud. He insisted that lessons must be learnt from history.

PTI Senator Dost Muhammad said Fawad Chaudhry had been punished for calling the Chief Election Commissioner a Munshi (clerk) and said Munshi was a better word for the individual who deserved to be called a peon.

Former chairman and PPP Senator Farooq H Naek sought the chairman’s ruling on who could use Pakistan’s flag on vehicle from amongst the federal ministers, ministers of state, advisers, and special assistants to the prime minister.

On a point of public importance, he argued that a number of ministers, state ministers, advisers and special assistants represent the government while many people had been given the status of either federal or state minister. He asked the chair to give his ruling whether all these functionaries could use the flag on their vehicles or only federal ministers. “This is the matter of flag of Pakistan and this should be clarified. The chair should give its ruling today to ensure respect of the flag,” he maintained.

Yusuf Raza Gilani, responding to his party colleague, said it was the discretion of the prime minister and if the premier gave the status of federal minister to some person, then the latter should be given the flag. He added that the flag could only be taken out if the status of minister of some person was withdrawn.

Chairman Senate Muhammad Sadiq Sanjrani said that he would give the ruling on Friday (today) and asked the secretariat to seek details from the Ministry of Interior.