Senate Chairman Raza Rabbani Monday directed federal minister for interior to give a detailed briefing to the House on December 16 on the implementation of the National Action Plan (NAP) - launched in January 2015 for crackdown on terrorism in the wake of terror attack on a military school in Peshawar.
The opposition leader in the Senate, Aitzaz Ahsan demanded a briefing from the ministry after Senate unanimously adopted a resolution, expressing complete solidarity with the families of December 16 martyrs, with a pledge to eliminate the menace of terrorism. The resolution was moved by Senator Mudassir Seher Kamran of Pakistan People's Party (PPP).
According to Rabbani, the interior ministry was going to brief the house committee shortly. However, he said that it would be more appropriate if the ministry could give a detailed briefing to the house on December 16. "The Senate of Pakistan re-affirms its solidarity with families of martyrs of Army Public School Peshawar and demands the government to continue its struggle for elimination of terrorism from Pakistan," said the resolution.
Aitzaz declared December 16 attack on a military school in Peshawar last year as a black day in history of the country. He demanded the government to disclose the measures taken and its achievements in NAP, which majority believe was not implemented in letter and spirit. Senator Farhatullah Babar of PPP moved a resolution, demanding ensuring strict implementation of the law disallowing the resurrection of banned outfits under other names.
Though the resolution was passed unanimously, according to the rules of business it is not binding on the government. During the proceedings, five resolutions, on different subjects, were passed as government did not oppose them. Sartaj Aziz, the advisor to prime minister on foreign affairs, informed Senate that performance of foreign ministry, embassies and high commissions was satisfactory and far better compared to some two years back.
Speaking on a motion moved by Senator Chaudhry Tanvir Khan of ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) on how to improve the performance of the Pakistani embassies across the world, Aziz claimed that within 48-hour of taking over, Prime Minister Nawaz issued circulars to Pakistani embassies across the world to focus on economic diplomacy.
He said that the embassies also submit annual reports to the foreign ministry a bout their performance. Besides, the adviser claimed that all Pakistani embassies especially in Syria, Yemen and other Gulf States, played important role in safe repatriation of Pakistanis in aftermath of crisis.
Aziz said that Pakistan's relations with US, European countries, India and Turkey had improved, which was manifestation of the fact that our foreign diplomacy was on right track and performance of embassies and high commissions was satisfactory. However, the senators lambasted the Pakistani diplomats across the world of pathetic performance, saying their sole purpose is to facilitate their kin and kith. Some of the senators even went to the extent in saying that they remain busy to get citizenship for their relatives and children.
Senator Tanveer who moved the resolution, recalled recent visit to Iran, adding video camera is a far fetched notion, the embassy does not even have a manual camera. He regretted that in today's technologically advanced age if this remained the situation of our missions/embassies abroad, how they can present the image of the country by issuing mere press releases.
Senator Colonel (Retd) Syed Tahir Hussain Mashhadi said that the Pakistani embassies throughout the world had a long history of facilitating and greeting the government of the time since long, adding this is quite unfortunate our embassies are only focused on pleasing the rulers and not improving the soft image of the country.
Speaking on a point of public importance, Senator Mushahid Hussain Sayed accused Capital Development Authority (CDA) of promoting religious disharmony in federal capital. Quoting a headline of a newspaper, which reads "Get rid of Christians, keep Islamabad clean: the CDA's Donald Trump movement," Mushahid said that this reflects that the civic body is promoting 'racial discrimination'.
Mushahid said that the Capital Development Authority (CDA) had submitted a report to the Supreme Court, lamenting the Christian community's alleged take-over of the government's territory, identifying the influx as a threat to the numerical superiority of Muslims in the capital city, which according to him is tantamount to promoting racism.
This prompted the chairman Senate Raza Rabbani, a left-winger, to issue order to the CDA to come clean within a week, adding that strict action will be taken against the civic body as well as the officials who prepared such a report which is no different than depriving people of their fundamental rights.
Rabbani also took serious notice of an incident with Senator Noman Wazir of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) parliamentary leader in Senate, who was along with his staffers were reportedly roughed up by officials manning a checkpost near Nowshera Cant. Rabbani said that he spoke to Chief of Army Staff (CoAS) General Raheel Sharif and apprised him about the issue, adding the COAS assured him to hold an inquiry into the matter and would report back to him soon.
"The COAS lamented the behaviour of the security personal at a security check post with a member of the house, and he has assured me to look into the matter...once I get the report, I'll share it with the house," he added. The house was adjourned to meet again on Tuesday at 3pm.