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The joint opposition in Senate staged a walkout on Tuesday against the absence of newly appointed Interior Minister Ijaz Shah from the House during the Question Hour. The senators belonging to the opposition and the treasury used harsh words against each other, besides levelling allegations against each others' governments, which hampered the smooth functioning of the House.
At the outset of the proceedings, former Chairman Senate Raza Rabbani pointed out that the Interior Ministry has given replies to only nine questions in writing but even then the minister is absent from the House which shows how serious the government takes Senate.
Leader of the House in Senate Shibli Faraz took the plea that despite cabinet meeting, some ministers are still present in the House to respond to the questions asked by the members, but Rabbani insisted that no other minister except the interior minister should be here.
Faraz recalled that during Rabbani's tenure as chairman Senate, Sheikh Aftab, the then minister for parliamentary affairs of PML-N, had responded to 634 questions, but now that very chairman is not ready to listen to any other minister, which is quite unprecedented.
He alleged the opposition is bent upon disrupting proceedings of the House under one pretext or another in a bid to settle their score with the government, as it might have some grudges against the ruling PTI, which is going after the corrupt rulers. Federal Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Azam Swati and his deputy Ali Muhammad Khan also came down hard on the opposition for disrupting the House business despite agreeing to run the House without any disruption.
Afterwards, majority of the members from both sides of the aisle was on its feet, shouting at each other which turned the House into fish market. The joint opposition then stormed out of the House, exposing the House to lack of quorum as quorum was pointed out by one of the opposition senators. After the bells were rung for five minutes, the quorum was still incomplete, but luckily Shibli Faraz managed to bring back the opposition MPs.
During the question hour, to a query Ali Muhammad told the House that 15 special police stations have been established across the country to deal with cyber crimes. He said that the incumbent government has made Cyber Crime Wing fully functional by paying the outstanding salaries of its staffers who had not been paid for the last 18 months.
He said about 15,350 complaints regarding cyber bullying and harassment were received by the Cyber Crime Wing during 2018-19. The minister added that over 8,124 complaints have been addressed and 176 persons were arrested. The minister agreed with JI Senator Mushtaq Ahmad and said that there is an alarming trend of targeting people through social media even by using anonymous IDs. He said the government is geared up to deal with this challenge and there is still a lot to be done.
The chair referred the issue of foreign visits of NADRA officials, involving significant amounts, to the House standing committee concerned after Senator Muhammad Talha Mehmood agitated on this. The House was informed that the government had signed 76 MoUs with international non-governmental organisations (INGOs) and these included Union Aid for Afghan Refugees, eleven belonging to the United Kingdom and ten belonging to Germany and three were from Saudi Arabia, and most of these i.e. 19 belonged to the United States.
Sanjrani also referred the matter relating to land settlement in erstwhile FATA after its merger with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to the House standing committee concerned on the request of PML-N Senator Pir Muhammad Sabir Shah. He made this request after Minister for States and Frontier Regions Shehryar Afridi said that no land settlement unit has been formed so far, as recommended by the FATA Reforms Committee in 2016.
He added that earlier FATA Secretariat had approved PC-I for land settlement but after 25th Constitutional Amendment, the Land Settlement and Preparation of Revenue Record became exclusive domain of provincial government. Responding to a calling attention notice moved by Siraj-ul-Haq, Leader of House in the Senate Shibli Faraz said international increase in the prices of petroleum products and depreciation of local currency have led to increase in the prices of petrol, diesel and LNG in the country. He, however, said that petrol and diesel prices in Pakistan are still lower than those in India and Bangladesh.
PPP Senator Rukhsana Zuberi and Dr Jehanzeb Jamaldini of BNP-Mengal called for countrywide awareness on water management and conservation even at houses in the face of water emergency in Pakistan, as they lamented household water is used even to wash cars and this precious resource is wasted even while taking bath and even brushing teeth.
State Minister Ali Muhammad agreed that there is a dire need to have public sensitised about the vital importance of using water carefully and educating children about it as well. He added 35 car wash stations in Islamabad had been told to make use of water minimum and install re-cycle units, as already three provided by UNDP had been put in operation here.
Speaking on a point of order, Senator Abdul Ghafoor Haideri of JUI-F strongly condemned the government's decision to withdraw the security of his party chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman, saying Rehman is not fond of enjoying security but he is in need of security as he is facing life threats. The opposition parties also endorsed Haideri's demand of restoring the security to JUI-F chief, saying he had been attacked in the past, and withdrawing his security is in no way justified.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2019

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