The parliamentarians from Federally Administered Tribal Areas have decided to submit adjournment motions in both houses of the Parliament to discuss the embarrassing treatment meted out to lawmakers at Washington airport. A six-member Fata MPs' delegation has recently returned home, cancelling their two-week US tour being guests of the State Department, in protest against body scanning at airports.
The lawmakers went to the US, as part of the US International Leadership Visitors programme with the commitment that they would not undergo body scanning at the US airports. The parliamentarians also decided to lodge serious protest against Pakistani ambassador to the United States Hussain Haqqani, who even did not bother visiting the protesting lawmakers in Washington.
Talking to Business Recorder, Sajid Hussain Turi, one of the member of the delegation said the Fata lawmakers under the leadership of parliamentary leader Muneer Khan Orakzai have decided to submit an adjournment motion in both the houses of the Parliament in the upcoming session, as to why the US homeland department treated the parliamentarians in such a manner despite earlier commitment that the visiting dignitaries would be exempted from the body scanning.
He said they believed that the US Homeland Department would have been apprised that they were visiting on the request of the US Statement Department, therefore, they would not go through the body scanning process. He claimed that prior to their departure, they were told that they are parliamentarians and would not be put in the category of those who undergo body scan at the airports for security clearance.
He said the delegation cut short its visit and returned home after witnessing the violation of the commitment of the US administration. "It was humiliation of the parliamentarians and we decided not to accept such unnecessary step by the US administration, as we did not request them to take us to their country," he added.
Turi said the Parliament should discuss, as to why the lawmakers were treated in such a disgraceful manner despite the fact that we are ally of the US in the war on terror.
He said Fata parliamentarians are also considering lodging serious protest in the Parliament against Pakistani ambassador Hussain Haqqani who did not even bother to visit them to express solidarity or know their point of view despite his presence in Washington.
To a question, he said, some lower staff of the embassy visited the parliamentarians and tried to persuade them to end the protest and start their visit as per the programme on the ground that the scanning process is the law of the US. "We refused to end the protest, as we were not ready to face such law," he said. "Being parliamentarians and Pakistani national, it was unacceptable for us to be treated in such a discriminatory manner." The government should ask the US to exempt Pakistan from the body scanning law, he added.
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