Govt faces defeat in Upper House; resolution against Altaf adopted

ISLAMABAD: The government faced a defeat in the Senate on Monday, as a ruling coalition ally, Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party (PkMAP), also joined the opposition parties in headcount for adoption of a motion to moving a bill in the House for a commission of inquiry to probe the PanamaLeaks.

Senate Chairman Raza Rabbani referred the bill to the house standing committee for discussion.The treasury benches opposed the motion, tabled by Leader of the Opposition Aitzaz Ahsan on the opening day of the 253rd session. The opposition had 32 senators present in the House, including three PkMAP senators, whereas the government had 19. The MQM also backed the proposed law besides the PkMAP.

The Balochistan National Party-Mengal’s Senator Dr Jehanzeb Jamaldeni, who sits on the opposition benches, sided with the government in opposing the proposed law, which is aimed at provision of a commission of inquiry to inquire into the revelations made in the Panama Papers.

The Senate Chairman, Mian Raza Rabbani, went for voice twice but had to opt for headcount, as in the voice match, he could not decide on whether or not to allow Aitzaz to move a motion for the proposed law. He got the officials galleries emptied also while going for voice vote second time. After the headcount, the chairman referred the proposed piece of legislation to the committee concerned.

Law Minister Zahid Hamid opposed the bill: the Panama Papers Inquiries Act, 2016, dubbing it as flagrantly discriminatory, targeting the prime minister and claimed the government’s bill was comprehensive and would have been handy in dealing with the matter.

Earlier, Aitzaz while briefly speaking on the bill, claimed that a piece of legislation, submitted by the opposition parties, was needed to address the situation, arising out of the Panama Papers, as the present laws were insufficient to deal with this issue.

Leader of the Opposition maintained that the proposed law was not at all discriminatory against anyone and would be applicable equally to all, whose names had surfaced in the Panama Papers revelations.

Aitzaz also made it clear that once the bill was referred to the House standing committee concerned for consideration and deliberation, rationale and constructive proposals on it would be welcomed.

The law minister while opposing the bill, claimed that it reflected a particular mindset to target the prime minister and that it was not a comprehensive one, excluding the Bahama Leaks and PTI’s Chairman Imran Khan, Jehangir Tareen, Aleem Khan and others also, who got their loans written off.

He claimed that the government’s bill was a generic bill, which would have catered for future commission of inquiries and was made stronger than the previous commissions, including the Hamoodur Rehman Commission.

While moving the motion for the introduction of the bill, Aitzaz said that Jamaat-e-Islam’s Senator Sirajul Haq’s name was not in the list of senators, who were behind the bill, but he fully supported the initiative.

As many as 39 senators, including Sirajul Haq and three senators belonging to PkMAP backed the proposed law. Hence all opposition parties, including PPP, PTI, PML-Q, Awami National Party are the movers of the bill.

Meanwhile, the Senate unanimously adopted a resolution to strongly condemn the remarks made by Altaf Hussain regarding Pakistan, chanting slogans against Pakistan and instigating his party workers to attack on media houses in Karachi on August 22.

The resolution moved by PTI’s Muhammad Azam Swati says, ”this House calls upon the government to take strict action against him and others for violating the law of the land, attacking media houses and creating law and order situation in Pakistan”.

Earlier, Senate Chairman Mian Raza Rabbani in a ruling with regards to a resolution moved by PTI’s Senator Muhammad Azam Swati allowed it’s tabling in the House, as it was based on a recent statement by MQM’s leader Altaf Husssain, which was not political, rather it undermined the existence of the state.

The Senate passed a unanimous resolution urging the United Nations to hold independent inquiry into the Uri incident to take it to its logical conclusion. The resolution moved by Leader of the House Raja Muhammad Zafarul Haq said that the Senate expresses its strong solidarity with the Kashmiri people for valiantly resisting brute repression of the Indian occupation forces and acknowledges that they are writing a glorious chapter in annals of historical freedom movements through their determination, will and spirit of sacrifice.

The resolution strongly condemned the Indian use of bullets and pellets which are killing and wounding new generation of unarmed boys and girls which is a crime against humanity. The resolution resolved that if Indian government dared to embark on any military adventure against Pakistan the people, the government and the armed forces of Pakistan will stand united as one to face and defeat any aggression with all their might at their command.

Meanwhile the members of the Senate have said that India will be given a crushing blow if it tried to indulge in any kind of aggression against Pakistan. They were speaking during a discussion regarding present state of relations between Pakistan and India especially after the recent statements made by the Indian Prime Minister regarding Pakistan.

They strongly condemned the statements made by the Indian Prime Minister against Pakistan. They said we are not deterred by any kind of threat. They said that the aggressive speeches of Indian Prime Minister are just to cover up their grave human rights violations in the Occupied Kashmir.