Minister bills Israel enemy No 1 of Pakistan

ISLAMABAD: Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Ali Muhammad Khan billed Israel as enemy No 1 of Pakistan, asserting there could be no question at all of recognising it.

Joint opposition also hinted at moving a motion in the House on Friday for disapproval of the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council Ordinance, 2019 (Ordinance No II of 2019), as required by Clause 2 of Article 89 of the Constitution, fearing for the session was being prorogued on March 08, the government, if not stopped, would cause irreparable harm.

Interestingly, Senator Mian Ateeq Shaikh of MQM-Pakistan, whose party is part of the ruling coalition, also supported this move and alleged there were mala fide intentions behind this ordinance.

Responding to a point of public importance raised by Senator Mushtaq Ahmad of JI, the minister said he was making the statement on behalf of the federal government, the cabinet and as member of parliament that neither was there any intention in the past nor now or in future to accord recognition to Israel or establish any kind of relations with it.

“Whosoever, talks about forging friendship with Israel, he should be thrown into the River Indus,” the minister emphasised and cited the speech of then Israeli prime minister in 1967, who had gone to France and spoken to Zionists, telling them that the ideological answer to Israel was Pakistan and that it must not be allowed to rise and for this purpose, Israel’s natural ally was India, out of which Pakistan had come into being.

The minister noted that all Pakistanis were united against Israel, with which India had nexus to commit aggression against Pakistan. He decried attempts by some to divide the nation by talking about Israel.

About Senator Mushtaq’s concern that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs had formally allowed Pakistani Jew Fishel Khalid to proceed to Israel, he said that the Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi would make a statement in the House Friday.

Senator Mushtaq and Senator Abdul Rehman Malik wanted the foreign minister to make a statement in the House on India-Israel to undermine Pakistan’s sovereignty. Malik asked what the government doing with regards to the issue of Modi, who is former head of terrorist outfit RSS, and now Prime Minister of India, carrying out Kashmiris massacre and hurling threats at Pakistan.

He also called on the government to take the House into confidence on Modi’s decision to change demography of Kashmir on the pattern of Palestine, carried out by Israel, saying India wanted to replicate the Palestinian model in Indian Occupied Kashmir. “The matter should be taken to the United Nations,” he emphasised.

Joint opposition raised the issue of private diplomacy, (which was used by the United States for de-escalation between Pakistan and India), as used by the US State Department official and then by Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi, a day earlier and wanted him to explain what exactly was meant by this new term.

Former chairman Senate Mian Raza Rabbani drew the House attention towards this matter on a point of public importance and said ever since the crisis erupted between Pakistan and India, the foreign minister had not come to the Senate and urged him to make a policy statement on private diplomacy and what exactly was asked to Pakistan and India and whether or not any commitment was taken from them by the United States for defusing the tension.

The Senate unanimously adopted a resolution to condemn the implementation of RSS sinister agenda in Indian Held Kashmir under the garb of ‘President Raj’ by unleashing crackdown on IHK Jamaat-e-Islami, sealing its offices and arresting its leaders and workers.

“The House explicitly expresses the fact that JI is waging a struggle for rights of people in Indian Held Kashmir at social, educational and political level. The House demands of the federal government raise its voice at every forum for lifting the ban on IHK Jamaat-e-Islami, freeing its political workers and restoration of its assets,” the resolution said, which was moved by JI Senator Sirajul Haq.

On a point of public importance, Senate Chairman Muhammad Sadiq Sanjrani informed the House about a letter being written to the attorney general of Pakistan and sought reply from him on his letter to the House committee on aviation division in which he expressed concern over its deliberations on PIA employees, having fake degrees.

Senator Mushahid Ullah Khan of PML-N, who is chairman of the committee, raised the matter and said the attorney general had referred to possibility of proceedings of contempt against the Parliament for not complying with the SC order on the issue of PIA employees. Rabbani rose to assert nowhere in the world, there was any concept of contempt of parliament. He asserted as to why had he written a letter to the committee chairman as it had not sought his advice.

He again charged that a mindset was active and not prepared to accept supremacy of Parliament and wanted a check on the powers of the National Assembly and the Senate. “How can an attorney general write such letter to a standing committee, which extension of the House,” he asked. Rabbani and Mushahid Ullah wanted strict action on the matter.

PTI’s Senators Nauman Wazir Khattak and Faisal Javed said that they wanted guidance from the Senate chairman on this issue and insisted that injustice must not be meted out to anyone and those, having fake degrees should not snatch right of the deserving persons.

They said should not Parliament ask about fake degrees. Rabbani said that such attacks on Parliament could be resisted with unity.