Chairman Senate Raza Rabbani on Tuesday said that US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson's statement that US relationship with Pakistan will be condition-based is not acceptable to us. In a statement in Kabul ahead of his visit to Pakistan, Tillerson said that he had made specific requests to Pakistan for them to act to undermine the support Taliban and other terror organisations purportedly receive in Pakistan.
This statement by the visiting US Secretary of State, Rabbani said, is not acceptable and 'should not act like a viceroy'. "Before coming to Pakistan from Afghanistan, he [Tillerson] said a lot...he should not talk like a viceroy and his statement is not acceptable," he added. He said that 'the tone and tenor' of Tillerson is not acceptable and he must go through the recommendations made by the parliament which had made specified in unequivocal terms that how relations between the two countries can be carried forward.
He directed minister for foreign affairs Khawaja Asif to brief the house on October 25 about the conditions which it had agreed to honour as claimed by Tillerson. "We'd no idea that government has accepted the conditions set by the US, and we got to know about it when Tillerson revealed it. If the parliament is not aware of the conditions, who else should know about them," he protested.
Rabbani also asked the law and justice minister to clarify a statement by Attorney General for Pakistan who told Supreme Court that the Senate is reluctant to pass the NAB Ordinance, 2017, which, he said is misleading and incorrect. He said the bill was presented before the Senate, and it had been recommended to the concerned standing committee for further consideration, which reported back on April 11, 2016 with a recommendation to pass the bill.
"There is no delay on the part of Senate as it is the government which is yet to bring the bill on the agenda of the day as it is a government bill, and the Senate must not be blamed for the delay," he added. The law and justice minister, Zahid Hamid, accepted that it was not the fault of Senate and he would clarify the statement of the AGP, as there were issues especially to strike down the plea bargain clause from the ordinance, which led to the delay.
Speaking on a point of public importance, Senator Serry Rehman demanded resignation of finance minister Ishaq Dar, saying a man who is not allowed to sign his personal cheques in no way deserves to act as finance minister of the country.
Senator Farhatullah Babar of Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) proposed that the recovered missing persons be allowed to depose before the Senate Committee in confidence. He also underscored the need for replacing the six years old Commission on Enforced Disappearances headed by Justice (retd) Javed Iqbal, with a new one.
Speaking on a point of order in Senate, he said journalist Zeenat Shazadi and rights activist Punhal Sario had been released from captivity last week but they were too scared to talk about their ordeal like all those who have been through it in the past.
"This is the responsibility of the state to re-assure these hapless people," he said and demanded that the human rights committee invite some of them to record their statements in camera. Further, Committee members should make a declaration on oath that they will not divulge their statements in public, he said.
He said that while the efforts of the Commission on Enforced Disappearances had resulted in the tracing of a large number of missing persons it had failed in performing two most important functions. It had failed in fixing responsibility on individuals or organizations responsible for enforced disappearance as well as in registering FIRs against them, he said.
The Senator proposed that after 6 years it was time to disband it and replace it with a new Commission with experts in investigations which should make public its report as provided in the new amended law on Inquiry Commissions, he said. He also called for making public the report of the first 2010 Commission under the late Justice Mansoor Kamal which worked for only one year.
On the issue of accountability, he said the Parliament had a unique opportunity to remove the glaring anomalies in the existing NAB law that was mis-used for political re-engineering. He called for seizing the moment and devising a new legislation for across-the-board accountability. "If this opportunity that has presented itself is lost the parliament will have no one to blame but itself," he added.
Chairman Senate said he would mull over what can be done about appearance of missing persons to share their ordeal with Senate committee on human rights after their recovery.
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