November 20, 2008	Thursday	Ziqa'ad 21, 1429

ISLAMABAD, Nov 19: The Pakistan People’s Party and Pakistan Muslim League-Q appeared to align in the National Assembly against the PML-N government in Punjab after they ignored the latter’s offer to address their complaints of police excesses and moved to form a parliamentary committee instead.

Raza Hayat Hiraj of the PML-Q, who raised the issue of police wrongdoings in his constituency in southern Punjab, said the committee members should visit the area and suggest how the police officials concerned should be punished. Mr Hiraj said if his allegations turned out to be baseless, he should be tried in court.

He, however, did not accept an offer by PML-N’s Khawaja Saad Rafique on behalf of the chief minister and the Punjab government to investigate the case.

In a choked voice, he said that a DSP and an SHO in his constituency’s Kund Malkani locality had got registered three FIRs against a family, ignoring court orders for an impartial investigation and despite statements of “real victims” in a firing case.

Mr Hiraj said he had raised the matter with Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani and others last month, but he had been advised against raising the issue in parliament’s exclusive session.

Citing more examples, he said police shot at a young man in a staged encounter. The man survived but lost an eye and was left mentally handicapped. The man, he alleged, was still in police custody, but they had denied his custody in court.

Urging the government to set up a three-member committee, he said the incident was all the more shocking since the area was near the prime minister’s constituency.

Saad Rafique said the attitude of police force used to be humiliating at all times, but it had worsened after the promulgation of the Police Order of 2002. However, Mr Rafique assured the house that he would take steps to bring anyone found guilty in the cases cited.

In his repsonse to the complaining lawmaker’s plea, the minister for parliamentary affairs agreed to set up a parliamentary committee and asked the speaker to propose names.

PML-N’s Rana Nazir said that forming of the committee despite assurance by Khawaja Saad Rafique was “not in good taste”.

Earlier, rising dengue fever cases was discussed by the house on a call-attention notice moved by Syed Asif Hasnain, Sufyan Yusuf, Mohammad Usman, Dr Nahid Shahid Ali and Donya Aziz.

Health Minister Ijaz Jhakhrani said that although the disease was curable, no pre-emptive measure could check its spread.

He said no dengue fever case had been reported from Balochistan because the disease was spread by mosquitoes in urban areas.

Earlier, Ghani Talpu, a PPP member, drew the attention of the house to the Karachi-Hyderabad Superhighway, where “15 to 20 accidents occurred daily”. He said instead of building a motorway, the highway should be improved.

The prime minister attended the National Assembly session under extremely tight security and movement of vehicles and pedestrians on roads leading to the Parliament House was halted before his motorcade entered from the back gates.

The MNAs’ tendency to surround the prime minister was noticed by the speaker, who asked the lawmakers to meet him in his chamber without any success.