February 03, 2007	Saturday	Muharram 14, 1428

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ISLAMABAD, Feb 2: Members of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) and the People’s Party Parliamentarians (PPP) on Friday protested over the decision of the chairman of the National Assembly’s Standing Committee on Interior to drop their bills due to absence of the movers and alleged that the government had done so in connivance with the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA).

Separately talking to Dawn, Kunwar Khalid Yunus of the MQM and Manzoor Hussain Wassan of the PPP criticised the committee chairman Sardar Talib Nakai for dropping the two bills seeking amendments to the Hudood laws during a meeting which lasted only for about 40 minutes.

Mr Yunus said he had reached the Parliament House directly from the airport but he had been told that the meeting had finished and his bill — The Offence of Qazf (Enforcement of Hudood) Amendment Bill, 2005, — had been dropped. He said he had moved the bill about three years ago and it was unjustified to drop it without giving a chance to the mover to speak on it. He said he had lodged strong protest with the chairman, who had expressed his inability to do anything in this regard saying that it was the committee’s decision.

“The committee has dropped my bill in haste perhaps due to the pressure and blackmailing tactics of the MMA,” he alleged. Mr Wassan said the chairman had dropped the Hudood Laws Repeal Bill, 2005, introduced by PPP information secretary Sherry Rehman, despite repeated requests by him and another party member, Nayyar Hussain Bokhari, to defer it. He said the chairman should not have put the bill for voting without listening to the arguments of the mover.

Mr Nakai, could not be contacted for his comments.

A handout said the committee recommended to drop The Offence of Qazf (Enforcement of Hudood) (Amendment) Bill, 2005, as it had been discussed in the select committee constituted to discuss the Women Protection Bill. Similarly, the Hudood Laws Repeal Bill, 2005, had been discussed during the proceedings of the Women Protection Bill, 2005, it said.