ISLAMABAD: The Upper House of the Parliament Wednesday set aside its scheduled business and passed a unanimous condolence resolution over the demise of Senator Kulsoom Parveen who recently succumbed to coronavirus.
At the start of 305th Senate session, some 21 senators—from both sides of the aisle—treasury and opposition—expressed grief over Kulsoom’s demise and paid homage to her contributions as a parliamentarian. Parveen was elected a senator on Women seat from Balochistan on Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N) ticket in the year 2015. She was due to retire from Senate along with 51 others senators in the coming March. Parveen remained senator for three consecutive terms from 2003 onwards before she died of coronavirus on the 21st of this month.
“She was the voice of the poor not only for Balochistan but for the entire Pakistan,” said Chairman Senate Sadiq Sanjrani before putting up the condolence resolution for passage. The resolution was moved by Raja Zafar-ul-Haq.
Deputy Chairman Senate Saleem Mandviwalla burst into tears while remembering the deceased senator. “She was like an elder sister to me. I was like a younger brother to her. I have this regret that we could not save her. Death took her away,” he said.
Others senators including Leader of the House in Senate Dr Shahzad Waseem, Leader of the Opposition in Senate Raja Zafar-ul-Haq, Information Minister Shibli Faraz, Railways Minister Azam Swati, Parliamentary Affairs State Minister Ali Muhammad Khan, Sitara Ayaz, Muhammad Javed Abbasi, Siraj-ul-Haq, Abdul Rehman Malik, Sassui Palijo, Nuzhat Sadiq, Jehanzeb Jamaldini, Naseebullah Bazai, Rubina Khalid, Gul Bushra, Ayesha Raza Farooq, Sana Jamali, Ateeq Shaikh and Samina Saeed remembered their deceased colleague and paid her profound homage.
The House also prayed for soldiers martyred in Harnai, Balochistan, at the Line of Control (LoC) and in other parts of the country.
The Senate would now meet on Friday morning to take up its scheduled business. Requisitioned by 34 opposition senators, the ongoing 305th session is scheduled to discuss seven-point agenda. The agenda items include discussions on: “egregious human rights violations and media trials committed by National Accountability Bureau in its victimization of targeted opposition workers—government’s unprecedented crackdown on opposition workers—alarming propensity of the federal government to usurp and subvert parliamentary and provincial rights guaranteed in the Constitution by attempting to rule the country by ordinances — unprecedented gas and energy crisis in the entire country— unabated price increases— crippling inflation and the rising graph of food insecurity—pre-poll rigging and election tampering at all stages by government in the recent Gilgit-Baltistan elections— precipitous economic situation and growing volume of loans taken by the PTI government.”
The opposition is also set to pass a resolution in the requisitioned session against NAB and its top officials and it would also push for referring the matter of NAB’s “egregious human rights violations” to Senate’s Functional Committee on Human Rights, a Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) senator told Business Recorder, requesting anonymity. The said committee is headed by PPP Senator Mustafa Nawaz Khokhar.
The deputy chairman Senate has moved a privilege motion against Chairman NAB Justice ® Javed Iqbal, Director General NAB Rawalpindi Irfan Mangi and Investigation Officer Mudassar Naqvi who probed Mandviwalla case in NAB.
The source said privilege motion against Mandviwalla can be debated in the House in detail in the requisitioned session and it can be referred to the relevant standing committee but there is not much the House can do about NAB without parliamentary legislation.
“Senate can pass a resolution against chairman NAB suggesting his removal from office or initiating action against him and such a resolution can also be passed by the relevant standing committee but these resolutions are not binding on government or anyone,” the senator said adding that it is unlikely that opposition would try to resort to legislation to curtail NAB’s powers as chances of the passage of any such bill from Parliament are very small.
Unlike president of Pakistan who can be impeached by the Parliament by two-third majority, chairman NAB cannot be removed from office through impeachment by Parliament. Section 6 (b) (i) of NAB Ordinance 1999 clearly provides that chairman NAB “shall not be removed except on the grounds of removal of a judge of the Supreme Court of Pakistan.”
Copyright Business Recorder, 2020
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