Fata merger bill: Sanjrani urges senators’ full presence in House today

ISLAMABAD: Chairman Senate Muhammad Sadiq Sanjrani on Thursday called on parliamentary leaders to ensure presence of members in the House on Friday for smooth passage of the bill on Fata merger with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

He gave this ruling, as the National Assembly adopted the landmark legislation, just a week ahead of expiry of its term. The session has been specially summoned for the passage of the bill. Apparently, there was no possibility of presence of a two-thirds majority in the House on the first sitting of 278th session.

During the 40-minute sitting, 56 members were present in the House while 43 were absent and four were on leave; senator-elect Muhammad Ishaq Dar is yet to oath as Senator, whose membership was suspended recently by the Supreme Court.

It has been observed that usually attendance remains thin on Fridays, whereas there is an urgency to get the bill adopted on Friday morning. The House offered fateha for the victims of recent terror incidents in Quetta and Pakistani student Sabika Shiekh, who also died in a mass firing incident in the United States’ Santa Fe High School, Texas a few days back.

Leader of Opposition Senator Sherry Rehman said reports suggested that Lashkar-e-Jhangvi had formed an alliance with Daesh and both were targeting, mostly members of Hazara community and minorities in Quetta.

She referred to a recent attack on a check post, where two cops embraced martyrdom and Colonel Sohail Abid, who also was martyred during an operation against terrorists. She showered praise on them for their contribution to elimination of terrorism and securing citizens, particularly the under attack Hazaras.

About the Daesh-Jhangvi alliance, she pointed out that the first kind of attack was mounted on Ismaili community in Safoora in 2015. Senator Sherry said that the United Nations report on the Afghanistan Khorasani group was also a matter of deep concern. The assault on a church in Quetta, she noted, was also a combined move by these terrorists.

She called for due acknowledgement of the valiant personnel of the Law-Enforcement Agencies and insisted that the demands of Colonel Soahil’s family be fulfilled and the Angoori road be named after his name and similarly their village name also be named after him.

Leader of the House Raja Muhammad Zafarul Haq rose to inform the House that Chief Minister Punjab had also visited his family and announced to fulfill these demands accordingly. Raja Zafar acknowledged the martyred colonel was a great patriot and a daring soldier.

Senators from different parties strongly raised the issue of electricity loadshedding in areas from Balochistan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to Fata. The chair sought report from the Ministry of Water and Power in this connection.

PML-N Senator Kulsum Parveen, PPP’s Behramand, Mushtaq Ahmad of Jamaat-e-Islami, PTI’s Nauman Wazir Khattak and Hilalur Rehman from Fata, claimed unscheduled loadshedding from eight to 16 hours were being experienced in several districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Fata and Balochistan. They called for relief to public in scorching heat during the month of Ramazan.

Senator Khattak complained that unlike during the last four years, currently, more than eight hours loadshedding was being experienced by industrial sector in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. He claimed contrary to the federal government claims discos enjoyed no freedom and were being controlled by the Ministry of Water and Power. The chair sought response from the minister concerned.

Senator Hilal said that Tesco was meting out injustice to the tribal areas, which faced even 20-hour long power outages daily and added whenever Khyber Pakhtunkhwa faced pressure, due electricity share of Fata was denied to them. He said this was a major crime, being committed against tribal people.

Senator Abdul Qayyum drew attention of the House to escalation in Indian hostilities, which claimed lives of four Pakistanis, including three children and a woman last Friday. On behalf of the House, he strongly condemned these killings and perishing of livestock as well. He wanted the minister concerned to brief the House in this connection.

Senator Mushtaq said that Rs162 billion of the Workers Welfare Fund was lying in accounts in Islamabad while thousands of orphans and widows of labourers were desperately looking for release of funds, but scores of cases in courts were impeding this release.

Senator Rana Mehmoodul Hassan of PML-N urged the government to direct the ambassador in Thailand to visit thousands of Pakistanis, languishing in jails there and address their difficulties. Senator Faisal Javed of PTI called for strict compliance of the court order with regards to school fees during summer vacations in Islamabad. Senator Muhammad Ali Saif drew attention of the House towards a statement by Chinese premier, who few months back visited India, expressing reservations about CPEC.

The senator said the government should explain this statement in the House, as he had earlier also raised this matter, but it went unanswered.