Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry on Wednesday left key PML-N Senator Mushahidullah Khan red-faced after the latter insisted for an apology instead of pressing the former to substantiate his claims against out-of-turn postings of his brothers on key posts abroad during his party's government.
It all started when the information minister rose from his seat to explain his remarks against Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) senator, but Chairman Senate Sadiq Sanjrani pressed the minister to wrap up things by extending an apology to the enraged MP without divulging into further details.
After the chair insisted that the minister must extend an apology, the situation further aggravated as all opposition MPs including Senator Khan demanded that the minister must not say anything else except apologizing, which the minister rejected straightaway.
Chaudhry said that he was ready to apologize but he wanted to place some facts before the house first. There was a furore in the House and opposition lawmakers including that of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) stood up from their seats when Fawad Chaudhry in his explanation said that he was quite right in his remarks as Senator Khan in the last PML-N government got appointed his real brothers, who are serving in state-owned Pakistan International Airlines (PIA), at key positions abroad.
The minister also repeated his remarks earlier in the National Assembly last week, that caused quite a stir in the Lower House and later, the issue got settled over the apology of Chaudhry on floor of the National Assembly.
"A thief must be dubbed as a thief, why should I apologize," shouted the minister while responding to protesting Khan who wanted him not to say a single word against his brothers' appointment but burry the issue under the carpet.
The bias of the chairman Senate was quite visible as his kept pressing the minister to apologize as 'agreed at his chamber' in presence of Leader of the House Shibli Faraz. "This House cannot be run in this way. You cannot talk in such a way about the member of this House," Sanjrani reiterated.
While Senator Khan kept shouting as his microphone was switched off and demanded that the minister should be forced to leave the House. The opposition kept shouting that Chaudhry be banned at least for one month from entering the Senate.
The House for some minutes became calm when the chair directed to open the mike of the Leader of the House Shibli Faraz who said that they wanted that the minister should come and either he should clarify the issue or apologize if needed.
Opposition Leader in Senate Raja Zafarul Haq said that the minister should apologize first as directives of the chair was binding on everyone. Over this, the information minister again remarked: "Why should I apologize to those who looted the public wealth?"
He alleged Senator Khan for getting appointed a number of his family members including his three brothers in the national flag carrier. Amid furor, the chair suspended the House proceedings for 15 minutes and asked the minister to come to his chamber.
After the House resumed, Chaudhry offered a light-hearted apology, saying he did not mean to hurt or attack anyone personally, but some facts must be placed on record in order put the record straight.
"My intention was not to hurt someone, if anyone has any issue over my statement, I apologize over my remarks," he said half-heartedly. The minister said that key state owned institutions were facing loss of billions of rupees because of mismanagement on part of the previous governments and all these organizations were made overstaffed.
The PIA faced a loss of Rs 45 billion in 2017 and its total losses have swollen up to Rs 356 billion, the losses of Pakistan Steel Mills are Rs 200 billion, Pakistan Television is facing Rs 109 billion losses, Radio Pakistan Rs 5 billion and total losses of Pakistan Railways are Rs 147 billion, he reiterated his earlier statement.
While giving his explanation over the issue, the minister again gave reference to a news story and read out its headline: "PIA promotes two brothers of PML-N leader Mushahidullah Khan...Mushahidullah was a loader in PIA, etc".
The opposition parties especially PML-N again started protesting over the remarks and staged a protest walkout from the House. The chair adjourned the House till Friday.
Earlier, State Minister for Interior Shehryar Khan Afridi while responding a call attention notice over the statement made by Prime Minister Imran Khan that Pakistani citizenship would be granted to the refugees living in Pakistan for decades said that the decision in this connection would be made by consulting all stakeholders.
"We will hold a thorough debate on the issue, and then a decision would be taken," he said, adding that the incumbent government cannot bypass key stakeholders. He said that the decision would be taken keeping in view the matters of national security.
He said that Pakistan was also a signatory to some international treaties in this connection and they could not make the country a laughing stock at international forums. He also said that no previous government had even taken care of those gypsies living in the country in miserable conditions.
Afridi said that under the Citizenship Act, any child who was born in Pakistan has the right to get the citizenship. While giving the details of refugees living in Pakistan, he said that according to data collected by then National Aliens Registration Authority (NARA) in 2010, 1.7 million Bengalis are living in Pakistan, 0.325 million Burmese, and 0.03 million are other refugees, besides Afghan refugees. About Afghan refugees, he said 1.4 million registered Afghan refugees are living in the country, 0.880 Afghan refugees have those who have POR cards and 0.5 million are unregistered Afghan refugees.