ISLAMABAD, April 24: The government was found virtually defenceless in the National Assembly on Tuesday over detention of opposition members during the current judicial crisis, after complaints of breach of privilege that brought both regrets and promises from Interior Minister Hayat Mohammad Khan Sherpao.
The second day of the lower house session that began on Monday proved to be a day of privilege motions in which opposition members complained of breach of their privileges by their or their colleagues’ detentions by the government in connection with nationwide protests against the presidential charge-sheeting and suspension of Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry.
Most opposition protests on what was a private members’ day centred on the overnight detention of People’s Party Parliamentarians (PPP) member from Rawalpindi, Zamurrad Khan, hours after he attended the first day of the session on Monday, forcing Speaker Chaudhry Amir Hussain to admit a privilege motion for a probe by the house committee on privileges.But the chair deferred five other privilege motions about some previous detentions or other police actions against other members -- most of them by members of the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal alliance -- to allow time to the government to collect information from relevant authorities.
One was about a recent missile attack on the house of opposition leader Maulana Fazlur Rehman in Dera Ismail Khan for which the Speaker said he would call for a report from the MMA government in the NWFP within a week.
Parliamentary Affairs Minister Sher Afgan Niazi appeared trying to trivialise the PPP member’s detention by the Punjab police ahead of Tuesday’s opposition demonstrations in support of Justice Chaudhry by casting doubts about the complaint, saying the member said to be detained might be just sleeping at his home.
But Mr Sherpao acknowledged that Zamurrad Khan was detained under a section of the Maintenance of Public Order Ordinance after his deputy, Minister of State Zafar Iqbal Warraich, had sought to delay the matter by asking for "some time" to collect "facts and information about the latest position".
"He is our (house) colleague and will be released soon," the interior minister said, about Zamurrad Khan, apparently trying to soothe his one-time party colleagues of the PPP and asked: "Why are you worried then?"
But Mr Sherpao’s promise to ensure Mr Zamurrad’s release so he could attend the National Assembly session and an offer of regrets for "any lapses" about a failure to inform the Speaker about the action failed to persuade PPP’s Naveed Qamar and other movers of the motion not to press for its reference to the privileges committee.
PPP secretary-general Raja Pervez Ashraf asked if opposition members were being detained for taking part in lawful marches for the independence of the judiciary why Pakistan Muslim League president Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain had not been arrested for leading a march by what he called a "danda-bardar (stick-wielding) force" in Islamabad on Tuesday.
PPP member Aitzaz Ahsan, who also heads the panel of chief justice’s lawyers, said it was not only unjustified but also unprecedented to put an assembly member under preventive detention during a house session and, like some other opposition members, questioned the justification of not informing the Speaker about the action.
MMA’s Liaqat Baloch recalled that the Speaker in the in the past been informing the house whenever a member had been arrested, evoking poignant remark from the chair: "But that happened only when an intimation (from the detaining authority) was received."
PPP member Ms Naheed Khan warned the Speaker that he too could meet Zamurrad Khan’s fate and complained that threats were being received by opposition members that their membership could be suspended if they participated in the protest marches.
"If it is Zamurrad Khan and Naheed Khan today, it could be turn of Chaudhry Amir Hussain tomorrow," she said.
Pakistan Muslim League-N member Tehmina Daultana caused a stir in the house at the fag-end of the proceedings by telling the Speaker that she had to leave her car at her home in Lahore’s Defence locality to escape arrest by police station house officer so that she could attend this session.
"By doing such things, you can’t strengthen this government which is controlled by a military dictator," she said.
Iftikhar A. Khan adds: The Peoples Party Parliamentarians on Tuesday submitted an adjournment motion with the National Assembly Secretariat seeking suspension of normal business to discuss the issuance of a show-cause notice to Aaj TV by Pemra for its ‘objectionable’ coverage of the ongoing judicial crisis.
"The show-cause notice to the TV channel is another addition to the series of attacks on the independent media carried out by the government to suppress dissent," the motion, submitted by PPP central information-secretary Sherry Rehman, said.
