ISLAMABAD: The Senate Special Committee to inquire into an alleged video of Senator Muhammad Azam Khan Swati on Tuesday and condemned the humiliating incident and expressed the resolve to conduct an in-depth inquiry into the shameful incident so that such a disgraceful incident could not happen in the future.
The committee unanimously elected Senator Maulana Abdul Ghafoor Haideri as convenor. The committee also decided that a four-member delegation of the special committee would meet with Swati to convince him to join the committee. “The delegation will assure Swati that the committee has been constituted for you and will request him to attend it in order to conduct an in-depth inquiry into the matter”, Haideri said.
Condemning the matter related to Swati, Haideri said that it was a very shameful and heart-breaking incident and no one will tolerate it. However, he said that Swati also leveled allegations against Chairman Senate Sadiq Sanjrani regarding the matter.
“Chairman Senate told him that Swati had requested him for booking a room as he was coming to attend a family marriage ceremony”, Haideri said, adding that the chairman Senate told that he booked a room as well as other protocol facilities for Swati. “Chairman Senate said that he is answerable to that extent only”, Haideri said.
Haideri said that Chairman Senate has constituted this committee with good intentions as well as to help out Swati and to conduct inquiry into this shameful incident. “If Swati boycotted the committee despite the request of the committee then it will continue its work within the constitutional framework”, he said, adding that “we will try our best to take this shameful act to its logical end”.
Senator Mushtaq Ahmed while condemning the video said that what happened with our colleague senator is unacceptable. “After the press conference of Swati in which he made the revelation about the obscene video, I feel helpless”, he said.
He said that after Swati’s press conference he wrote a letter to the chairman Senate and requested him to form a committee to probe the matter. “Soon after the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) had declared the video fake and also issued a press release without conducting any investigation”, he said, adding that the Supreme Court has also issued a press release regarding the matter. “It is irrelevant whether the video was made in Quetta or Islamabad”, he said, adding that it is very questionable why the FIA and the Supreme Court issued press releases hastily regarding the matter before the completion of the investigation.
He said that we need to complete the inquiry of the incident within 30 days and submit the report. This committee is the extension of the parliament and it can summon officials of any department, he said, adding that the committee should summon officials of the FIA, the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) as well as international experts.
Senator Anwarul Haq Kakar said that what happened with Senator Swati was very shameful. “Different statements are surfacing on social media regarding the matter and allegations were leveled against different institutions and chairman senate in the last few days”, he said.
Senator Syed Faisal Ali Subzwari said that Azam Swati needs to attend the committee as he has the original video. “Swati did not appear before the committee who have the original video then the parliamentary body will question FIA”, he said. He said that no one has the right to violate the sanctity of anyone’s house and we strongly condemn this shameful culture. “This shameful act done by opponent political party or agency it was the responsibility of the government to probe it and take action against the people responsible in it”, he said.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2022