ISLAMABAD, June 4: The Senate on Wednesday received back with open arms Baloch nationalist lawmaker Sanaullah Baloch, who had remained in exile for about 19 months after the launch of the military operation in Balochistan.

The senator, a member of the Balochistan National Party-M, who had fled to London to escape arrest, was also stripped of his membership of the house, but it was restored by the Election Commission on his return.

He said: “I and my family, including my mother, underwent untold miseries during this period, but they were negligible in comparison with the atrocities meted out to the natives of my province by the law enforcers.”

He warned that efforts to keep the federation intact by force would not succeed. It could only be saved through political empowerment and accommodation, Senator Sanaullah said.

“All of us must join hands to foil the efforts” being made to derail the ‘teething’ democratic process, he said.

The Leader of the House, Mian Raza Rabbani, took the floor after the question hour to welcome Senator Baloch.

He said the senator had suffered for so long with his family for no crime other than that he used to raise voice for the rights of the people of his province in and outside the house.

He said Senator Baloch was not alone in seeking refuge abroad. His family was also victimised and two of his brothers were picked up and kept in seclusion to put pressure on him to return.

Senator Rabbani said the coalition government had released most of the political prisoners and decided to abolish the concurrent list through the proposed constitutional package and to make it binding that the governor of a province be domiciled in that province.

The divided opposition in the house was strengthened by the return of its member and it made its presence felt by staging a walkout when a treasury member was allowed to move an adjournment motion.

The opposition lawmakers contended that it was the domain of the opposition to move an adjournment motion, but Senator Rabbani said the rules did not forbid members from doing so.

Chairman Mohammedmian Soomro said the matter needed to be thoroughly debated before he could give his ruling.

Kamran Murtaza of Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam (Fazl) sought to move along with Jamaat-i-Islami’s Prof Khurshid an adjournment motion about the recent missile attack by a Nato plane on Damadola village of Bajaur Agency. But before he could read the motion, Anwar Bhinder of the Pakistan Muslim League-Q interrupted him, saying that moving an adjournment motion was the prerogative of the opposition.

Prof Khurshid also said that under parliamentary traditions, opposition lawmakers moved motions for adjournment of proceedings to discuss a matter which needed the government’s attention.