10 July 2004	Saturday	21 Jamadi-ul-Awwal 1425

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ISLAMABAD, July 9: The government assured members of the Senate on Friday that security agencies were following due process of law in fighting terrorism, rejecting the opposition's charges to the contrary.

Interior Minister Faisal Saleh Hayat gave the assurance after the issue was raised by Senator Farhatullah Babar of the People's Party Parliamentarians who said two doctors were reportedly kidnapped by intelligence agencies more than two weeks before police announced their arrest in connection with a June 10 attack on the Karachi corps commander's convoy.

But there was no government response to most of several other issues raised by Senators from both the opposition and treasury benches through points of order, including one questioning the trial of former PPP senator Asif Ali Zardari in a narcotics case that Prime Minister Shujaat Hussain says is false.

The interior minister complained that the opposition accused the government of doing little when incidents of violence occurred in Karachi, Quetta and other places but presented a different "scenario" when the people believed to be involved in such incidents were hauled up.

"Is he talking about terrorists' rights or the rights of (peaceful) citizens?" the minister queried on Mr Babar's point of order concerning Karachi's doctor brothers, Akmal Waheed and Arshad Waheed, whose arrest was announced on July 2 while they had gone missing and allegedly picked up by intelligence agencies on June 17.

"We followed due process of law and presented them before a magistrate," Mr Hayat said about all people arrested in connection with the attack on the corps commander's convoy. "In no case due process of law was ignored although these terrorists do not deserve an iota of compassion," he added.

The minister said the government followed legal procedures despite the constraints they imposed in implementing the counter-terrorism strategy. "Terrorism has to be tackled forcefully."

Mr Faisal blamed activities of alleged terrorists in the country for special precautions enforced at US airports for Pakistani visitors about which Prof Ghafoor Ahmed of the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal had complained in a point of order earlier.

Senator Babar said the disappearance of the two Karachi physicians and what he termed their illegal detention before being remanded to police was not the only incident of its kind.

He recalled what he called mysterious kidnapping and disappearance of one Dr Amer Aziz in Lahore, businessman Saifullah Piracha in Karachi and journalist Khawar Mehdi in Quetta before they were formally produced before a court of law and formally charged.

He said the issue was the observance of due process of law under which those arrested must be brought before a magistrate within 24 hours of their arrest. The senator urged acting chairman of Senate, Khalilur Rehman, to reconsider the admissibility of a question he had asked last October - but was killed in the chairman's chamber - about whether there was any law under which security agencies and the Inter-Services Intelligence were allowed to kidnap, detain and interrogate Pakistani suspects.

He recalled that he had also asked that if indeed there was any such law on the subject, it should be placed before the Senate so the legislators could consider improvements in it.

He said the question was not allowed on the ground that it was of "secret and sensitive nature" and, according to a Senate secretariat letter, asked for "information on a matter prejudicial to the integrity and security of the country".

PPP Senator Mohammad Latif Khosa, in his point of order, said the prosecution should withdraw what he called the politically- motivated narcotics case against Mr Zardari after a recent remark by the prime minister that it was a false case.

He recalled that Chaudhry Shujaat had made a similar statement as interior minister in the cabinet of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif when the case was registered and asked: "What is the fetter in...redressing the long standing agony (of Mr Zardari)...?"

Prof Ghafoor Ahmed objected to what he called "humiliating and unnecessary" search procedures introduced at US airports for Pakistani visitors despite a declared strategic alliance between the two countries and demanded that Islamabad lodge a protest with Washington.

The MMA senator also regretted the recent temporary closures of the US embassy's visa section and the British High Commission in Islamabad as well as the Saudi consulate in Karachi because of reported security concerns and said these actions conveyed a bad message about Pakistan.

Mrs Gulshan Saeed of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League questioned the propriety of a memorandum reportedly sent to British Prime Minister Tony Blair by a PPP human rights committee in Britain asking him not to support President Pervez Musharraf, and asked: "Can we call them patriots?"

Unexpected compliments for the government from the opposition benches came when Ms Saadia Abbasi of the PML-N welcomed Commerce Minister Humayun Akhtar Khan's statement at a news conference on Thursday that Pakistan's exports in fiscal 2003-04 amounted to $12.3 billion, more than the $12.1 billion target, and said she hoped the level of increase would be doubled next year.

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