ISLAMABAD, May 31: Opposition senators on Thursday submitted a calling attention notice to the Senate Secretariat asking Foreign Minister Khurshid Mehmood Kasuri to tell the upper house about the reasons for which the visit of Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz to the United Kingdom was cancelled at the eleventh hour.

According to the parliamentary secretary of the Alliance for the Restoration of Democracy (ARD) Izhar Amrohvi, the notice has been submitted under Rule 59 of the Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in the Senate 1988 and carried the signatures of seven opposition senators belonging to People’s Party Parliamentarians (PPP), Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA) and Awami National Party (ANP).

The notice said Mr Aziz was scheduled to visit the UK on the invitation of British Prime Minister Tony Blair who wanted to have a farewell meeting with his Pakistani counterpart and to introduce him to the incoming prime minister. “All of a sudden without assigning any reason, it appeared in the press that the visit had been cancelled. This is a matter of grave concern to the parliament and the people of Pakistan,” the senators said.

The notice has been moved by opposition leader in the Senate Raza Rabbani, Ishaq Dar of the PML-N, Prof Khurshid Ahmed of the MMA, Ilyas Ahmad Bilour of the ANP and Enver Baig, Babar Awan and Rukhsana Zuberi of the PPP.

Meanwhile, six opposition senators have also submitted an adjournment motion to the Senate Secretariat seeking a debate on the reports that a team of Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has arrived in Pakistan to carry out the Pakistani leg of the criminal investigation into a financial scam in which several top financial officials were involved in making money thanks to insider information provided by a Pakistani national who worked for the Credit Suisse bank in the US.

Through yet another adjournment motion, the opposition senators have sought discussion on the reports that the United Nations was investigating claims that its peacekeepers in Democratic Republic of Congo traded gold and weapons with militia groups.

These motions have been signed by Raza Rabbani, Dr Babar Awan, Saadia Abbasi, Asfandyar Wali, Sardar Latif Khosa, Dr Safdar Abbasi and Ishaq Dar.