ISLAMABAD: Senate Chairman Raza Rabbani turned down on Wednesday a request of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf for a government briefing on cases pending before the National Accountability Bureau, terming the matter sub judice.

Speaking on a ‘point of public importance’, PTI’s Azam Swati drew the attention of the house to a list submitted by NAB on Tuesday before the Supreme Court containing names of politicians and bureaucrats allegedly involved in 150 mega scams involving over Rs428 billion.

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, former premiers Yousuf Raza Gilani, Raja Pervez Ashraf and Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain and former president Asif Zardari are among those on the list.

Terming it a serious matter, the PTI lawmaker said the government should inform the house about the names of those who had ‘looted’ the national exchequer.

“This is an important matter. The economic terrorism has destroyed the country,” he said, adding that corruption was rampant in a country half of whose population did not have sufficient food to eat and whose educated youths were working as labourers in the Gulf countries.

“I request you to unmask those who have looted the country,” he said.

But the chairman ruled that since the matter was pending before the Supreme Court, the house could not discuss it. He, however, told Mr Swati that he could seek any information on the issue by using parliamentary rules.

Earlier, the house admitted an adjournment motion moved by PML-Q’s Mushahid Hussain through a vote on the issue of alleged attempt by the Capital Development Authority (CDA) to convert 1,400 acres of the National Agriculture Research Centre (Narc) into commercial plots.

The chairman put the motion for a vote after the government opposed it. Admitting the motion, the chairman said he would fix a time and date for discussion on this issue.

Speaking in support of his motion, Mr Hussain said Narc was saving foreign exchange and increasing agricultural yields through research, a role it had been playing since 1984.

He alleged the CDA had been trying to seize land which was not part of its master plan and it was a violation of laws, rules and regulations.

In any case, he said, the CDA’s own track record of handling land in Islamabad could be seen from the failure of its Park Enclave, launched in 2011, on which it collected advance payment of over Rs2 billion from potential owners, while they had yet to develop this sector.

Mr Hussain said the elite in Pakistan were developing a “greedy and grabby political culture with a quest for Qabza paramount” and this culture had no limits.

“How much land does a man need?”

Opposing the motion, Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Shaikh Aftab said the CDA had allotted 1,400 acres for 33 years on lease to the agriculture research centre in 1975 during the PPP regime. The lease, he said, had expired in 2005.

He claimed that the land was leased only for agricultural purposes, but a petrol pump and a residential colony had been set up there.

Meanwhile, the chairman ruled that a member of parliament and his family – spouse, minor children and unmarried daughters – residing with and wholly dependent on the legislator shall be entitled to medical facilities. He said an MP was entitled to the same medical facilities as were admissible to a gazetted officer (Class-I) of the federal government under the Federal Services (Medical Attendance) Rules, 1990.

Published in Dawn, July 9th, 2015

On a mobile phone? Get the Dawn Mobile App: Apple Store | Google Play