Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi on Monday said the Intelligence Bureau (IB) letter linking 37 parliamentarians to proscribed outfits is forged and the government is investigating the matter to ascertain the facts behind the fake document.
Speaking on the floor of the National Assembly, the Prime Minister said that it is important to bring forth the facts behind the forged letter that has linked the parliamentarians with the banned outfits. "We do not want to pressure any media house," he said, "and it is responsibility of the government to ascertain as to who forged the document."
The Prime Minister also urged the Speaker to take up the privilege motion submitted by the members and it should be referred to the Privilege Committee for further discussion. He clarified that neither the Prime Minister sought any report about the parliamentarians from the IB nor the agency prepared any such report shown on a private television channel.
"An FIR has been lodged to probe the issue," he said, adding, "The IB has also filed a complaint with the PEMRA (Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority) to look into the issue." The Prime Minister said that the members whose names appeared in the list had raised the matter in the cabinet and they were clearly informed that Prime Minister House had neither written any such letter to the IB nor sought any such report from the agency.
"The IB released a statement the very next day and said the document was forged," he said, adding the members were requested to take up the matter with the PEMRA. "The members whose names were on the list have also been asked to file a complaint with PEMRA regarding the incident," he said, adding that the people deserve to know the truth.
Abbasi said the PEMRA is looking into the issue as per its rules, adding the federal government has also taken up the issue to investigate it. Earlier, the Prime Minister met the parliamentarians mentioned in the fake letter and assured them of resolution of the issue.
The MNAs made their reservations clear to Abbasi, saying that appearance of their names on the alleged list, which links them to outlawed terrorist outfits, has tarnished their image. The issue was first raised by Minister for Inter-Provincial Co-ordination Riaz Hussain Pirzada at the recently held cabinet meeting chaired by Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi. Later, they also walked out from the National Assembly to register their protest against the government.
Responding to calling attention notice, the Prime Minister claimed that oil prices in Pakistan are the lowest as compared to the whole region and the government has always tried to pass on minimum burden on the consumers.
He said that price of crude oil has spiked in the last two months and even then the government has not increased the per litre petroleum prices as proposed by the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (OGRA). The Prime Minister said the OGRA had suggested an increase of Rs 19 per litre in the price of kerosene oil but the government has increased it only by Rs 4 per litre.
He said the petroleum prices go up and down when they fluctuate in the international market and the rupee-dollar parity also affects the petrol prices. Speaking on a point of order about the IB letter, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf member Shah Mahmood Qureshi questioned the Prime Minister's stance that the matter was settled in the cabinet meeting, saying, "If the members were satisfied with the explanation, they would not have walked out of the House."
He, however, said the matter should be probed thoroughly to ascertain the facts. "It is not fair to put the whole burden on a journalist and a media house," he said, adding, "Efforts are being made to gag the whole media."
Speaking about Khatam-e-Nubawat (Finality of Prophethood), PML-N member Captain Mohammad Safdar (retd) appreciated the government for conducting an inquiry to fix responsibility for change in law related to the status of Ahmadis and oath declaration of the candidates in the nomination paper in Election Law 2017.
He demanded that employees of the armed forces and judges of superior judiciary should be bound to give an affidavit for finality of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH). Safdar also warned that employees working in the Atomic Energy Commission should also be scrutinized to know if there is any Ahmadi among them; otherwise the atomic programme would not be in the safe hands.