ISLAMABAD: The Senate will be briefed in-camera on Friday (today) on alerts issued to warn the authorities against possible violent acts prior to the four terrorist attacks taking place in the country in the first two days of the current week.

This was decided after remarks about the attacks made by Minister of State for Interior Baleeghur Rehman could not satisfy the information-starved upper house of parliament.

The minister had told the house that responsibility for the suicide attack in Lahore had been claimed by the Jamaatul Ahrar (JuA) — a faction of the banned Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP).

He said the group had been banned in November last year and was based in Nangarhar and Lalpura areas of Afghanistan.

Afghanistan had been asked not to allow its soil to be used for launching terrorist attacks in Pakistan, he said.

The minister said that TTP had claimed responsibility for the attack in Peshawar. No outfit had claimed responsibility for the violent acts in Quetta and Mohmand Agency, he said, but added that some clues had been found about the people behind them.

Mr Rehman, however, refrained from divulging details and said that more information could not be shared with the members until the completion of the investigations.

“What is the job of parliament then?” asked Senate chairman Mian Raza Rabbani rather angrily. He regretted that the government did not want to share anything with the parliamentarians.

Mr Rehman said that in the period before the fresh wave of attacks roc­ked the country, the situation had improved considerably. All-out efforts were being made to arrest the trend and the matter was being taken seriously at the highest levels of government.

“Many facilitators and planners [of the attacks] have been held,” he said.

“But that does not mean you deny and starve the parliament of information,” Mr Rabbani observed, stressing that parliament was what provided strength to the government.

The Senate chairman, while referring to the latest series of terrorist attacks, said there must be some intelligence information available with the government about the aims and objectives of the organisations behind the atrocities. Mr Rabbani also spoke of a video clip released by spokesman for the JuA, which had gone viral in the social media.

It was finally decided that Minister Rehman would brief the house in-camera about the terror alerts issued in the days before the attacks.

Mr Rehman was of the view that the information should not be made public.

Meanwhile, the house approved a report of the Senate Committee on Finance and Economic Affairs about privatisation of the Heavy Electrical Complex (HEC).

The report has disclosed that the successful bidder’s shares are worth only about $1,000. “This is the actual standing of the company in public markets which has been considered for a multi-billion-rupee transaction of HEC,” the report reads.

It said the top management had shown high level of incompetence and “wilful” errors of judegment in conducting the transaction.

The house also adopted the report of the Functional Committee on Devolution about the placement of five regulatory authorities under the line ministries.

In its report, the committee headed by Senator Mir Kabeer Ahmad has recommended that the regulatory authorities should be made independent. It noted that placing them under the line ministries without seeking approval of the Council of Common Interests was a violation of the Constitution and against the very concept of regulatory authorities.

Senator Taj Haider of the Pakistan Peoples Party expressed serious concern over the government’s plan to privatise airports in the name of outsourcing their management and operations.

Mr Rabbani referred the matter to the Senate Standing Committee on Cabinet Division, asking it to submit a report within a month.

Published in Dawn, February 17th, 2017