Irked at agenda revision, Hamid Raza calls off NA panel meeting

ISLAMABAD: Chairman Standing Committee of the National Assembly on Human Rights Sahibzada Muhammad Hamid Raza recorded his strong protest on revising of the agenda of the committee meeting without taking him into confidence and called off the panel meeting on Monday.

Before the actual proceedings could take place, Raza said he believed to work as a team and always tried to work beyond party affiliation, however, agenda of the meeting had been revised without taking him into confidence. He stated that he was well aware about the sensitivity of the issue and never tried to pass any direction on sub judice matters pending in different courts for adjudication.

While recording his protest, he decided to call off the meeting with the view point that they were not allowed to work freely and the agenda of the meetings was being scrutinised without the consent of the committee.

Earlier, Minister for Human Rights briefly told the committee that the matter was sub judice and Islamabad High Court had already constituted a commission to probe the matter. It would be appropriate if the august committee may wait for the commission’s final decision so that the same could be discussed in the meeting of the standing committee, he added.

The meeting was attended by MNAs Danyal Chaudhary, Dr Nelson Azeem, Ms Sehar Kamran, Ms Shahida Rehmani, Naveed Aamir, Ali Muhammad (through video link), Sher Afzal Khan, Muhammad Riaz Fatyana, Ms Zartaj Gul, and Khawaja Izhar-ul-Hassan, MNA/Mover (through video link). Senior officers from the Ministry of Human Rights and its attached departments were also present in the meeting.