ISLAMABAD:
The Pakistan Peoples Party Parliamentarians (PPPP) secretary general on Thursday said that the Senate chairman as well as the secretariat blocked their senators’ move to call a session on the Jaranwala incident, saying that the party was gravely disappointed over disallowing the Senate requisition notice and deplored the highly disturbing message sent out to the Christian community.
The PPPP has found itself at odds with the custodian of the house and the Senate secretariat over the requisition of a session to discuss the Jaranwala incident. Hundreds of Muslim men vandalised dozens of homes and torched churches in a Christian neighbourhood on the pretext of blasphemy, raising concerns over religious tensions in the country.
The controversy surrounding the Senate session requisition emerged after the Senate secretariat rejected the PPPP’s request, citing discrepancies in the signatures of several senators.
The PPPP while feeling deeply disappointed by the Senate’s decision accused Chairman, Sadiq Sanjrani, and the secretariat of blocking their move to discuss this disturbing incident on the upper house’s floor.
“The Pakistan Peoples Party is gravely disappointed and dismayed over disallowing requisition of the Senate to discuss the recent Jaranwala mayhem in the name of religion,” former senator Farhatullah Babar said.
In a statement, the PPPP secretary general revealed that 27 senators had submitted a signed requisition notice in the Senate secretariat on Sept 1 under clause 3 of Article 54 read with Article 61 of the Constitution. The notice was submitted on their behalf by PPP Senator Shahadat Awan. However, Babar added, five days later in a letter dated Sept 6, the Senate secretariat said that the signatures of five PPP senators on the requisition motion “do not match with their signatures on the Roll of the Members” and, therefore, the “requisition does not fulfil the requirements for summoning of the Senate session by the Honorable Senate chairman”.
The Senate secretariat said signatures of Farooq H Naek, Mian Raza Rabbani, Palwasha Mohammad Zai Khan, Rubina Khalid and Shamim Afridi did not match.
In addition, it was also declared that the signature of Senator Muhammad Akram did not match with that on the ‘Roll of the Members’.
Expressing dismay over it, Babar said that it was surprising that the Senate secretariat did not call any one of these six senators to confirm whether they had signed the requisition notice or not.
Instead, he said, it unilaterally concluded that the signatures did not match and thus the number of senators required to sign a requisition fell below the mandatory number and rejected the requisition notice.
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“It is unprecedented, inexplicable, and betrays more than meets the eye.”
Babar said it was a standard practice to check with the purported signatories by telephoning them for verification but for some reasons it was not done.
“It appears that some elements for reasons best known to them did not want to discuss the shameful Jaranwala mayhem marked by the desecration of churches and the loot and plunder of Christians’ homes and properties,” he said.
The PPPP secretary general said, “Parliament has already been gravely undermined by elements inimical to it through both overt and covert means and one looks up to the custodians of the House to lift it from the abyss to which it has been thrown into.”
However, Babar said, insignificant as it may appear, a requisition notice nonetheless may be viewed as a small bid by the House to assert itself by raising issues of national importance.
“However, when the custodian of the House also appears to be scuttling such a small move and throws the requisition notice in the dustbin, the hopelessness increases,” he said.
He added, “By rejecting the requisition notice on flimsy grounds a highly disturbing message had been sent to the Christians and other non-Muslim minorities.
“The PPP deplores the sending out of such an insensitive message.”
In addition, Babar regretted that it is most unfortunate that such a message had been sent out during the year of Golden Jubilee celebrations of the Constitution of Pakistan that guaranteed their safety and security and the security of their places of worship.
Recently, US Ambassador to Pakistan Donald Blome had met caretaker Premier Anwaarul Haq Kakar and while conveying that the US wanted free and fair elections in Pakistan, he had said that the US wanted Pakistan to ensure protection of religious minorities in the wake of the Jaranwala incident.
