ISLAMABAD: The senators preferred their personal and petty matters over national issues on Monday and consumed most of the session’s time discussing the condition of their Parliament Lodges and alleged derogatory remarks about them of PTI chief Imran Khan.
The members had a heated discussion on the two issues and even made personal attacks on Mr Khan, whose party has no representation in the house, but none focused on the killing of 23 FC personnel by the Mohmand Taliban a day earlier.
Surprisingly, the opposition members who had been criticising the government for holding talks with the Taliban despite continuing terrorist attacks in previous sittings did not speak on the killing of FC men. The most they could do was to offer Fateha for them.
There was no distinction between the opposition and treasury members and all of them were unanimous in lambasting the PTI leader when ANP’s Zahid Khan drew the attention of the house towards the latest controversial remarks reportedly made by him in a recent media talk in which he alleged that the senators spent huge amounts to become parliamentarians.
The members unanimously moved a privilege motion and Deputy Chairman Sabir Baloch referred it to the committee concerned.
It was not for the first time that the senators made Imran Khan a punching bag as earlier he had remained a target of criticism in the house for his stand on the issue of holding talks with the Taliban and a controversial statement saying there were only 40 per cent chances of success of a military operation in tribal areas.
Speaking on a point of order, Zahid Khan said it was unfortunate that a parliamentarian himself had “degraded” the upper house of parliament through his statement.
Terming the remarks an “insult to the whole house”, he called for “teaching Imran Khan a lesson” for hurting the feelings of all the senators.
Rafiq Rajwana of the PML-N termed the statement contempt of the house.
Saeed Ghani of the PPP was of the view that if the PTI chief had any evidence of any member having paid money to become a senator, he should have approached the Election Commission for his disqualification.
Salim Mandviwala of the PPP said Imran Khan’s statements had a demoralising effect on the nation and the armed forces.
Kalsoom Parveen of the BNP-A said Mr Khan should not “throw stones while sitting in a glass house”.
Ignoring the agenda, the members then spent significant time speaking about the difficulties they had been facing in the Parliament Lodges because of poor sanitary conditions and substandard furniture and fixtures.