ISLAMABAD: The opposition parties in the Senate expressed concern on Friday over terrorist attacks across the country amid peace talks between the government and Taliban and submitted an adjournment motion in the house against the killing of nine Frontier Corps personnel in North Waziristan.
The motion was moved by Senators Mian Raza Rabbani, Saeed Ghani, Rubina Khalid, Zahid Khan, Aitzaz Ahsan, Farhatullah Babar, Mola Bakhsh Chandio and Haji Adeel.
In their motion, the senators said the government had failed to protect lives and property of the people which was mandatory under articles 9, 24, and 25 of the Constitution.
Nine FC personnel were killed and over a dozen others injured on Thursday in an attack by militants on a convoy of security forces in the Ghulam Khan area of North Waziristan Agency.
“It is a shocking incident at a time when peace talks are in progress between the government and the outlawed Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP),” the motion read.
It said the matter should be discussed immediately on the floor of the house.
In a separate adjournment motion, the opposition members condemned the killing of human rights activist Rashid Rehman in Multan.
The motion was moved by Senators Afrasiab Khattak and Farhatullah Babar.
It said that Mr Rehman had alerted the authorities to the threats hurled at him by some religious fanatics. His gruesome assassination had thus raised issues of grave and urgent public importance.
The motion said that Mr Rehman had complained to a judge last month that he was being threatened by some people who didn’t want him to defend a person accused in a blasphemy case.
The motion said the matter was extremely worrying because Mr Rehman was actually assassinated within a month of having received the threats from religious fanatics and his pleas to seek protection were not heeded by the government.
The assassination highlighted the “denial of fair trial of persons accused of religious crimes”, the motion added.
In a separate statement, Senator Babar said it was disturbing that the defence of legal rights of those accused of religious offences had become almost impossible in the country.
“Not only is it difficult to find defence lawyers in such cases, the courts are often besieged by mobs demanding instant death of the accused, even without going through the due process of law,” he said. “Professional complainants, often with ulterior motives, are also readily supported by police, the prosecution, the media and the clergy as everyone wants to secure the conviction of those accused of offences relating to matters of belief,” he said.
He added that the policy of “appeasing the militants” had served to strengthen the hands of hardliners and erode the rights of people accused of religious crimes.