The Senate Standing Committee on Interior, which met under the chairmanship of Senator Ayaz Khan Mandokhail in the Parliament House on Tuesday, has taken strong exception to the attitude of the minister for Interior and secretary Interior for not attending the meeting of the committee.
The committee said this has been despite the fact that the date of the meeting was fixed in advance, affording sufficient time to the minister and the ministry to respond.
The meeting was convened on a resolution moved by Senator Professor Mohammad Ibrahim Khan in the House to discuss the situation arising out of the ban on the activities of the elected body of the National Assembly Secretariat Employees Co-operative Housing Society, Islamabad and the matter was referred to the committee by the House.
The committee, while reviewing the situation arising out of the continued absence of the minister of interior and the interior secretary, was of the view that in the absence of the minister and the secretary from the committee meetings the deliberations of the committee will not be useful as no policy decisions could be taken in their absence.
The committee therefore, unanimously decided to postpone discussion of the items to the next meeting of the committee likely to be convened within a week or so.
The meeting was attended, besides the chairman of the committee Senator Ayaz Khan Mandokhail, by Senators Hamid Ullah Jan Afridi, Kamail Agha, Mrs Gulshan Saeed, Mrs Tahira Latif, Maulana Gul Naseeb Khan, Sardar Mahtab Ahmad, Mateen Shah and the mover Senator Professor Mohammad Ibrahim Khan.
Chief commissioner Junaid Iqbal and deputy commissioner Islamabad were also present.