March 16, 2007	Friday	Safar 26, 1428

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ISLAMABAD, March 15: Chairman and members of the National Assembly Standing Committee on Rules and Privileges Thursday sent a letter to Speaker Chaudhry Amir Hussain complaining against the attitude of ruling Pakistan Muslim League (PML-Q) MNA Kashmala Tariq and intentionally abstaining from the committee’s meetings, sources told Dawn.

The sources said the committee chairman, Nasrullah Khan Dreshak and all the members of the committee were unanimous in condemning the attitude of Ms Tariq and decided to bring it to the speaker’s attention when she refused to attend the meeting even on the written advice of the chairman, despite the fact that she was present in the Parliament House at the time.

The meeting had been convened to discuss a privilege motion, submitted by People’s Party Parliamentarians (PPP) MNA Syed Qurban Ali Shah, in which he had alleged that Ms Tariq had levelled false allegations of embezzlement against him, during a debate on the floor of the National Assembly.

Ms Tariq had not attended the previous two meetings of the committee either and the members had criticized her for being absent from the meetings on one pretext or another.

On Thursday again, Ms Tariq did not turn up for the meeting but the members came to know that she was present in the Parliament House and was attending a meeting of another NA committee.

The sources said upon receiving this information, the committee chairman sent a NA Secretariat employee to Ms Tariq, asking her to come and attend the meeting.

However, the sources said, the employee came back and informed the chairman that Ms Tariq had flatly refused to attend the meeting.

The chairman again sent the employee back to Ms Tariq, this time with a written message on a piece of paper, requesting her to attend the meeting.

The chairman, the sources said, had even suggested to Ms Tariq that he could adjourn the meeting for some time just to accommodate her and ensure her presence. However, in utter disregard to the chairman’s directive, Ms Tariq tore to pieces the paper sent to her by the chairman and asked the employee to hand over the torn pieces of paper to the chairman.