ISLAMABAD, Nov 17: The combined opposition in Senate agreed on Thursday to withdraw allegations it had levelled against the minister for textiles concerning the quality of tents procured for quake victims, but refused to apologize with him The opposition had accused the minister of getting the specifications of tents changed and exploiting the situation to his benefit.
The opposition walked out when Chairman Muhammedmian Soomro ruled that since there was no consensus and since the house committee could take action without reference, the relevant rules would apply.
Soon after the walkout, Leader of the House Wasim Sajjad offered to the opposition that the matter could still be referred to the committee provided the allegations were withdrawn and an apology tendered to the minister.
Leader of Opposition Mian Raza Rabbani returned to the house to say: “I am ready to withdraw allegations of irregularity in tents procurement deal but I will not apologize since this was not mentioned by Mr Wasim Sajjad when he made the offer.”
Mr Sajjad, who had mentioned the apology in his offer, insisted on looking into the house records. Mr Rabbani left the house refusing to apologize after which the house could not continue its proceedings for long and was adjourned till Friday morning.
The treasury and opposition had earlier argued for quite some time whether the issue should be referred to the house standing committee.
The opposition said that if there was nothing wrong about the tender floated by the government to procure tents worth Rs6 billion then it should allow it to be discussed in the house standing committee.
The treasury, however, insisted that the opposition should join the proposed parliamentary committee to supervise disbursement of the president’s earthquake fund.
PPP Parliamentarians’ Abdullah Riarr had alleged that the order was placed for substandard tents made of cotton, instead of canvass, to provide benefit to a minister having commercial interests in textiles.
Mushtaq Ali Cheema, Minister for Textiles, told the house that while placing the order the government faced the problem of deadline as it required 300,000 tents within a month. Therefore, it agreed with the manufacturers that it would accept tents made of drill fabric instead of canvass which were in short supply and of substandard in quality.
