ISLAMABAD: The Senate witnessed on Tuesday a rumpus when opposition members protested over objectionable remarks made by Railways Minister Khwaja Saad Rafiq against PPP’s parliamentary leader Raza Rabbani.
A number of agitating opposition members stood up and started criticising the minister for, what Opposition Leader Chaudhry Aitzaz Ahsan later termed “threatening” Mr Rabbani for pointing out the absence from the house of the federal minister for industries and production during a debate on proposed privatisation of Pakistan Steel Mills (PSM).
“You kept on looting the country for five years. You destroyed all institutions. Now we will teach you manners,” said Mr Rafiq in reply to severe criticism by Mr Rabbani after he alleged the industries’ minister was intentionally skipping the sessions to avoid speaking on the issue.
A number of treasury members, including some ministers, also stood up and gave a matching response to the shouting opposition senators.
“We don’t come here to learn any lessons and we will not tolerate this,” Mr Ahsan said, asking the railways minister to withdraw his words. He said if such a treatment would be meted out to the opposition, it would be difficult for its members to stay in the house.
Earlier, PPP Senator Raza Rabbani questioned the absence of the Minister for Industries and Production, Murtaza Jatoi, for the second time despite the last week’s assurance by Leader of the House Raja Zafarul Haq that he would attend the sitting on Tuesday.
Mr Haq said the minister was busy in connection with the wedding of his niece and that he would be available in the house on Thursday to respond on the PSM issue. He assured Mr Rabbani that if the minister did not come in the house, any government representative would issue a policy statement on the matter.
Later, Saad Rafiq explained that he had respect for the opposition and his remarks were not meant to intimidate any member.
WALKOUTS: At the outset of the session, journalists staged a token walkout from the press gallery to register their protest over the Balochistan government’s act of registering a case against staff members of ARY TV channel under terrorism charges.
Speaking on a point of order, Chaudhry Aitzaz Ahsan drew attention of the house towards the empty press gallery and said the house was not in order in the absence of journalists.
Mr Ahsan said despite the fact that the opposition was also facing discriminatory treatment from the media, it always talked about the independence of media. He said registration of an FIR against journalists under terrorism charges was a misuse of the law. Later, the PPP and all opposition members staged a walkout to express solidarity with the protesting journalists.
The chairman suspended proceedings for a few minutes asking the information minister to bring back journalists.
Later, Information Minister Pervez Rashid assured the house that he would make every effort to resolve the issue.
Hasil Bizenjo of the National Party (NP), which is the ruling party in Balochistan, claimed that the FIR had been registered by the provincial government on the order of the Balochistan High Court. He said the TV channel had aired a video on Aug 14 allegedly made by activists of Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) showing the burning of the Ziarat Residency of the Quaid-i-Azam.
MISSING PEOPLE: In reply to a question by MQM’s Tahir Mashhadi, Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan told Senate that law-enforcement agencies had traced so far 93 out of 381 people who had disappeared from all over the country last year.