ISLAMABAD, Dec 2: The government on Thursday defended its decision to remove the column of religion from the newly-introduced machine-readable passports, and informed the Senate that this step had been taken in line with the practice in Saudi Arabia and Malaysia.
Minister of State for Interior Dr Shahzad Wasim said passports of other Muslim countries, including Azerbaijan and Yemen, also were without the column. Keeping in view the current anti-Muslim sentiments in the world, this step would allay fears of Pakistanis travelling in Europe, he said.
Acting Senate chairman Commander Khalil-ur-Rahman allowed a large number of senators to speak on points of order before the start of the question hour. Speeches on this issue took almost one hour and generated a lot of heat.
However, the house failed to dispose of legislative business which was on the order of the day for the last three consecutive days. The chair wanted to finish the agenda for the day by convening the house in the afternoon, but it was later adjourned for Friday morning on the request of the opposition and treasury benches.
The acting chairman left his seat minutes before the adjournment when a PML Senator Kamil Ali Agha took his seat and announced that the house would meet tomorrow (Friday).
The house will now be disposing of some important legislative business on Friday when a bill on Karokari and another seeking amendments to the anti-terrorism act and contempt of court act, already passed by the National Assembly, will be presented.
The house was taken by storm at one stage when Minister of State for Interior Dr Shahzad Wasim tried to justify the omission of the column of religion from the passport on technical grounds as a number of MMA senators rose to rebut him.
The minister, however, outwitted the religious parties by posing a counter question: "Have Saudi Arabia and Malaysia turned secular as their passports have no column on religion?"
The minister also explained that it was not possible to include the column of religion in the new passport as it involved computerised printing. The minister said it was a standard practice all over the world including the Muslims states. He pointed out that there was no mention of religion even in the national identity card.
He, however, clarified that a separate form had been provided to be filled up by every Pakistani going abroad, in which he had to declare his faith. On a point of order, MMA's Syed Hidayatullah termed the omission a conspiracy and demanded exemplary punishment to the people responsible for this step.
Prof Ghafoor Ahmed endorsed his party senator and described the move as a conspiracy to turn the country into a secular state. Senator Ilyas Bilour of the Awami National Party (ANP) pointed out hardships of many compatriots who were either deported from some Middle Eastern countries or stranded in Far Eastern countries due to the change of passport without prior information.
