Probe report in a month, NA told: Azam Tariq’s murder
By Raja Asghar
ISLAMABAD, Oct 10: The government promised on Friday to present an inquiry report on the murder of National Assembly member Maulana Azam Tariq within a month as the lower house marked the first anniversary of its election in relative calm.
PML-Q chief whip Abdul Sattar Laleka gave the assurance before Speaker Chaudhry Amir Hussain dismissed an opposition attempt to table a privilege motion based on Monday’s shooting in Islamabad that killed Maulana Tariq, head of the Millat-i-Islamia Pakistan, his three bodyguards and the driver.
Mr Laleka, who is also minister for labour and manpower, said the government was committed to a demand made in a resolution unanimously passed by the house on Tuesday demanding an early inquiry report on the murder by unidentified gunmen and added: “The report on the incident will be submitted before this house within a month.”
Speaking on behalf of Interior Minister Faisal Saleh Hayat who did not come to the house because of illness, Mr Laleka said his assurance left no ground for a privilege motion, through which the opposition sought to raise the issue of what it called an atmosphere of insecurity for assembly members in the capital.
At the start of the morning sitting after a two-day recess, Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA) deputy parliamentary leader Hafiz Hussain Ahmed told the speaker that the opposition wanted to move a privilege motion because the shooting was also a breach of privilege of assembly members who, he said, felt insecure after the incident.
The speaker dismissed the move and instead ordered the start of the question-hour, provoking an opposition walkout from the house just when reporters in the press gallery also staged a walkout to protest against the murder of a journalist in Shikarpur.
While walking out, the opposition members also briefly chanted slogans against President Pervez Musharraf and the Legal Framework Order (LFO).
The first anniversary of the first general election after three years of military rule went largely unnoticed and there was no mention of it in Friday’s house proceedings.
Opposition parties told a news conference later that the government had made no progress in tracing the killers of Maulana Azam Tariq.
MMA’s Liaquat Baloch said the purpose of the planned privilege motion was to have the matter discussed by the house privileges committee and responsibility fixed.
People’s Party Parliamentarians secretary-general Raja Pervez Ashraf repeated the opposition demand for the interior minister to resign over the incident, and said suspension of two police officers in Islamabad was just an “eye-wash.”
Hafiz Hussain Ahmed said the government side had backed out of a pledge it made in a business advisory committee meeting held earlier in the day to allow the opposition to move a privilege motion.
After the question-hour, the only business conducted by the house was the introduction of a bill and disposal of a call-attention notice about the losses suffered by cotton crop, particularly in southern Punjab, due to a pest attack.
Details of the Public Complaints (Removal of Grievances) Bill, 2003, introduced by Minister of State for Law, Justice, Human Rights and Parliamentary Affairs Mohammad Raza Hayat Hiraj, were not immediately available.
But the assembly’s agenda said the bill would provide a mechanism for speedy removal of public grievances against “the acts of omission or commission of a stage agency and provide for a procedure for disposal of public complaints”.
