Senators have expressed serious concerns over certain banned terrorist outfits taking part in July 25 general election either by changing names of their proscribed organizations or their members are contesting as independent candidates.
They expressed these concerns during a meeting of the Senate Forum for Policy Research (SFPR), a think tank of the sitting and retired parliamentarians, chaired by Senator Colonel Tahir Hussain Mashhadi (retd) who referred to certain proscribed organizations and their members who are contesting the upcoming general election.
"This is against the spirit of National Action Plan (NAP) and Constitution of Pakistan. The institutions including Judiciary and the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) should take notice of allowing the members of the banned outfits to contest the general election," he said, adding that it is a very dangerous precedent being made in the country's history.
Without naming anyone, he pointed out that there are certain proscribed organizations that are directly contesting the election while a few others are taking part in the polls by changing names of their organizations after they were proscribed.
He further said that the forum would compile a report comprising recommendations to the Senate for consideration pertaining to the activities of the banned terrorist outfits as well as the increasing extremism and the way out.
Senator Ilyaz Ahmed Bilour maintained it is unfortunate that over a dozen of organizations are based in the country, which have been proscribed by the United Nations Security Council.
"These terror outfits are bringing a bad name to the country and the most serious issue is that they are contesting the election with new labels. Their members are even allowed to take out processions with their members openly holding guns in their hands," he said, adding: "We have to raise our voice against these terror outfits as the country does not afford such elements to operate freely."
The senator also referred to the incident happened with Additional District and Sessions Judge of Larkana Gul Zameer Solangi during the visit of Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar to the lower court, saying "I have never seen or heard about a chief justice of any country behaving this way with any lower judge."
While seconding the point of view of Senator Bilour, Senator Maula Bakhsh Chandio said that the "Chief Justice is worried about Pakistan after his retirement".
"You have also never heard this before when he [Chief Justice] stated I'm worried what would happen to the country after my retirement?" Chandio said while referring to the alleged statement of the CJP. Chairman of the Forum Colonel Mashhadi, paraphrased a famous quote of a jurist that judges do not speak, rather their judgments speak louder.
However, Faisal Javed of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) advised his senior colleagues that they should carefully choose the words while speaking about judiciary and the CJP, saying that one should appreciate the judiciary for the good work done. "We must point out the things for correction, but we also must appreciate that the judiciary for the first time made the sitting government accountable," he added.