Delimitations bill deferred again for absence of senators

ISLAMABAD: The Senate on Wednesday yet again failed to take up the key constitutional bill for paving the way for holding of delimitation of constituencies due to absence of many lawmakers, forcing Chairman Mian Raza Rabbani to say parliament must not miss this historic opportunity of holding the polls on time.

Raza Rabbani said parliament has already missed the boat of across-the-board accountability by not enacting a law and now it must not lose the historic opportunity of holding the next elections on time. The 24th Constitutional Amendment Bill has been on the orders of the day since Friday but could not be moved, as mandatory 69 (two-thirds majority) senators were not around for the adoption of the piece of legislation.

When the Senate proceedings resumed with an unusual delay of 32 minutes, some 53 senators were present in the 104-member House, of which 22 belonged to the PML-N, eight to PPP, four to JUI-F, two each to PML-Q, ANP and PkMAP, four to MQM and Fata, three to PTI and one to the BNP-Mengal. But the number went down to 29 when the bill was to be taken up: 22 of these belonged to the PML-N, two to Fata, four to PPP and one to MQM.

Though the total number of senators who attended the proceedings was 68, they were not present at one time, as several senators apparently came to the House merely for attendance and then left. Five senators are on leave, including Salim Mandviwala of the PPP, who will be away till November 26, and JUI-F’s Maulana Attaur Rehman, who will not be around till the end of this session. PML-N Senator Sardar Zulfiqar Khosa has also been staying away since the session began on Friday.

Earlier, Raza Rabbani summoned Leader of Opposition in Senate Aitzaz Ahsan, who was not present in the House at that time, and said though his office does not permit him to say it all, yet he has no option except making an observation over the delay of the bill as custodian of the House. He said he is the political disciple of late Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, who once stated that he would prefer to die at the hands of tyrants but refuse to be eliminated historically. He urged both the sides to play their role in the passage of the bill.

Aitzaz rose to fully endorse the chairman’s views as there has been a lot of acrimony due to which the bill is yet to sail through the House, already adopted by the National Assembly on Thursday last. He expressed optimism that there is enough time with parliament as only a few days have passed and not months and the issue will be resolved soon.

“We are not entirely pessimistic about it…we hope to have a positive outcome in the next few days,” he contended. Leader of the House Raja Zafarul Haq said that he appreciates every single word which Rabbani said about the delay in the passage of the bill, which is the key to holding next general elections on time.

“We appreciate every word you said here, and we fully stand by you. Timely elections are essence of democracy,” he maintained. Rabbani said: “Inshallah”, when Raja Zafar said all-out efforts are being made and the issue will be resolved soon.

Later, the PPP parliamentary leader in the Senate Taj Haider, while talking to reporters, explained why his party supported the bill in the National Assembly after the federal government agreed in the Council of Common Interests (CCI) meeting that a third-party audit of certain population blocks would be conducted.

However, he pointed out that when the bill landed in the Senate, the government was still reluctant to identify the third party auditors. “We want to entrust the gigantic task to some statisticians, but the government is bent upon getting it down by chartered accountants. What does a chartered accountant know of demography and statistics? We want there should be a third party audit and it must be done in consultation with the federal government and all the four provinces, but the government is still tight-lipped on this,” he noted.

On an issue of public importance, Farhatullah Babar warned against what he called the creeping Talibanisation of the tribal areas on the one hand and denying them basic medical facilities on the other. He said that recently the government asked the organisation Doctors without Frontiers providing medical care to people in Bajaur and Kurram agencies to pack up without giving any reason. “The doctors working in this organisation are not foreigners but Pakistani nationals who operate through local hospitals providing medical care in most disturbed areas and there is no reason why they should be banned,” he said.

Babar claimed that pamphlets, containing Taliban like moral code, were recently distributed among the people by a peace committee in Wana, South Waziristan, banning all socio-cultural activities in the region.

“This happened even though the military was firmly in control and a security operation of some sort was also undergoing in the area,” Babar said. He said that although the officials have routinely denied the incident but the locals have insisted that pamphlets had indeed been distributed warning of dire consequences if moral guidelines were not followed.

The senators also strongly advocated presentation of the half-yearly report of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) about its activities under the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act (PECC), 2016, and discussion on it, barring sensitive parts of it.

Raza Rabbani said that though an FIA report was with the Senate Secretariat, submitted by the agency through the Ministry of Interior, yet he wanted assistance from legal experts (senators) whether or not it be laid in the House or discussed in-camera while the inter-ministerial committee was formed last year and it was working on the related rules. He maintained it appeared the rules would not be finalised in the near future but he had already given the ruling that information could not be withheld from parliament, but the mode of sharing could be talked upon.

Aitzaz Ahsan called for early presentation of rules in the Senate and the National Assembly for consideration and finalisation. Aitzaz said that the House committee of the whole could also look into the proposed rules.