Senate body wants judicial commission on Sahiwal incident

ISLAMABAD: The Senate Committee on Interior directed on Monday that a judicial commission be formed on Sahiwal incident and its TORs be publicly announced, and the judicial commission must be headed by a senior judge of the High Court.

It was decided in a meeting of the Senate Standing Committee on Interior held on Monday. Chaired by Senator Rehman Malik, the meeting was attended by Senator Javed Abbasi, Senator Mian Muhammad Ateeq Shaikh, Senator Sardar Muhammad Shafiq Tareen, Senator Haji Momin Khan Afridi, Senator Kauda Babar and senior officers from the Ministry of Interior (MOI), Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), Capital Development Authority (CDA) and the Mayor, MCI Islamabad

Senate Committee Chairman Rehman Malik was of the view that the police cannot be given licence to kill and even if there was evidence against them, the committee must be given the reason for them not be arrested instead. “It is alarming situation that how lawlessly unarmed civilians were killed in day light by Punjab Police on main highway in front of dozens citizens around,” he said and added that all questions submitted to the Ministry must be responded to in detail.

A report was sought from the Ministry of Interior on this matter to clarify whether Daish/ISIS exits in Pakistan or not.

He read the questions the committee recommended to be sought from the IG Police and Secretary Home, Punjab, which were endorsed by the members of the committee. He directed that the committee sought full details and profile of the deceased members of the family and details on whether any past criminal record, FIR or anything related to any criminal activity of the deceased individuals or their family existed or not.

The committee asked when the alleged suspects stopped the car on CTD Police direction, then why police opened firing. It also sought full police version on the incident -- at what level such action was ordered -- was there any FIR wherein these deceased were ever summoned or interrogated. Is there any intelligence report on them if that should be placed on record?

Another question raised by the committee was that if it was a police encounter, then was it being supervised by senior police officers as per laws? Pemra was also asked to provide entire footage of the incident as it is broadcast on electronic TV channels.

Senator Javed Abbasi informed the committee that he will soon introduce a bill in the Senate that would deal with police reforms and citizen protection, which is the need of the day.

While discussing progress made to resolve administrative financial and legal issues of the MCI, Committee Chairman Senator Rehman Malik directed that all due funds must be transferred to the MCI within two weeks. He also stressed the need for funds to be allocated separately to MCI and CDA in the new budget.

The committee also considered the report presented by the FIA DG regarding a complaint against illegal operations of M/s Hadeed International Ltd at Karachi Airport. The committee chairman said that Securities & Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) had, earlier, confirmed in its report that Hadeed International is not registered with Securities & Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) and was operating from Dubai. He asserted that the Civil Aviation not followed the legal process in allocating operational contract and should advertise it again for a new contract.

The committee chairman said that this is a very unprofessional attitude on behalf of Securities & Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) officials to term a highly important misreporting as spelling mistake adding that they, otherwise, tried to mislead the highest forum of the country--Parliament. The FIA was directed to investigate and submit a final comprehensive report to the committee. He said that this was a disgrace to the country.