June 30, 2005	Thursday	Jumadi-ul-Awwal 22, 1426

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ISLAMABAD, June 29: The Senate standing committee on rules of procedure and privileges on Monday summoned the Punjab home secretary and the Lahore SSP in connection with the manhandling of the leaders of the People’s Party Parliamentarians (PPP) by the security authorities on the occasion of arrival of Asif Zardari on April 16, sources told Dawn.

The sources said the meeting, presided over by Senator Naeem Hussain Chattha, discussed the question of breach of privilege of Opposition Leader in the Senate Mian Raza Rabbani, PPP senators Dr Safdar Abbasi and Dr Akbar Khawaja regarding manhandling and harassment by the police and other law-enforcement agencies in Lahore on April 16.

According to the sources, the members of the committee discussed a consolidated report, submitted by the interior ministry, on the issue. They said the ministry in its inquiry report had categorically rejected the charges of manhandling of the PPP leaders and said no such incident took place on April 16 when Asif Zardari arrived in Lahore from Dubai.

However, the sources said the PPP senators protested over the report and demanded the copies of the inquiry report. Moreover, they alleged that the Punjab home secretary, Hassan Wasim Afzal, and the SSP (Operations), Mr Cheema, were involved in the police action and they should be summoned before the committee to ascertain the facts.

Mr Chattha, who was chairing the committee meeting in the absence of its chairman Saeed Siddiqui, decided to summon both the officials of the Punjab government in its next meeting. However, no new date has been fixed for the next meeting as it would be finalized after the return of Mr Siddiqui from a foreign visit.

It may be mentioned that on the arrival of Asif Zaradri in Lahore on April 16, a large-scale arrests of the PPP leaders, including parliamentarians, were made. Dr Safdar Abbasi had claimed that he was kept in a cell near Pakistan-India border with PPP MNAs Naheed Khan and Sherry Rehman.

Similarly, Senator Raza Rabbani had alleged that he along with other party leaders was detained by the police at the Gulberg residence of Chaudhry Ahmed Mukhtar.

Meanwhile, the sources said the PPP members were also unhappy with the “non-serious” attitude of the chairman of the standing committee, Prof Dr Saeed Siddiqui. One of the opposition members told Dawn that Mr Siddiqui was not taking the committee’s proceedings seriously and most of the time, he himself did not attend the meeting. He claimed that so far only four or five meetings of the committee had been held and several times, the chairman had postponed the already convened meetings.

The Monday’s meeting was attended by Federal Minister for Local Government and Rural Development Justice (retired) Abdul Razzaq Thaheem, Opposition Leader in the Senate Raza Rabbani, MMA Senator Dr Ismail Buledi, Senator Dr Safdar Abbasi, Federal Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Dr Sher Afgan Khan Niazi and senior officials of the ministries of interior, law, justice and parliamentary affairs.

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