The grand building of Parliament Lodges was built in 1996-97 to provide high class accommodation to the heads of the states attending an OIC summit held in 1997. Later it became second home for parliamentarians in Islamabad. But with the passage of time the building lost its beauty and grandeur, becoming an ordinary one mostly due to misuse by its inhabitants.

Today one cannot get such accommodation on a subsidised Rs4,000 per month in the capital. But this facility is not only provided to parliamentarians but their servants too. In fact Rs4,000 per month cannot be called rent but a token price, as it is difficult to get accommodation anywhere in Islamabad for such a paltry sum of money.

Parliamentarians over the 13 years have misused the Parliament Lodges by not paying their charges, utility dues and sometimes left with furniture and other things. To makes matters worse, the building remained under the use of army monitoring teams during the days of Gen (retired) Pervez Musharraf, former president.

Now it has come to the knowledge of people that some politicians have more than one suites in the Parliament Lodges. Information Minister Qamar Zaman Kaira and Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam (JUI-F) chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman are among them.

Second home of more than 400 lawmakers, presence of armed guards in the Parliament Lodges, roaming around without any check, can turn ugly any day. Reportedly the armed guards settle their petty disputes violently, as they have free access to the corridors and the condominiums along with their ready-to-use weapons.

Sometimes these stoutly built men even threaten the rivals of their masters. The staff of the Capital Development Authority (CDA), which provides services in the lodges, cannot dare intervene in the clash of legislators.

A few months ago around 15 guards of an MNA broke into a suite of another legislator “to teach him lesson for passing uncivilised remarks” in the National Assembly, although for which the MNA has tendered apology on the floor of the House for two consecutive days.

“About 400 armed guards of MNAs and Senators are living in servant quarters and lobbies,” a senior CDA official told Dawn. “MNA Sheikh Waqas Akram from Jhang has 40 armed guards while Sahibzada Fazal Karim has 20,” the official said. Reportedly the two parliamentarians have received threats and therefore extraordinary security for them. Almost every MNA and Senator has at least one and some have four to five guards.

But ironically the Parliament Lodges, according to a police report, has become the most insecure VIP building in the capital mainly due to interference of parliamentarians in security matters.

The sources said parliamentarians had clear instructions for police and rangers deployed at the gates of the lodges to allow their guests and vehicles enter without any security check. “Now any one can easily enter the lodges and become a potential source of a mishap,” the source said.

The police report regretted that if a guest of a parliamentarian was held with some illicit material, the parliamentarians' attitude with security personnel was harsh. It has called for mandatory checking of all vehicles entering the lodges, ban on carrying weapons and explosives, and visitors' body and baggage search with metal detector.

The report also recommends that the visitors and private guards should only be allowed in after confirmation by the parliamentarians. It also wants issuing of cards with block numbers and colour code for visitors to each block.

The report recommended that the existing passage on the first floor of A and B blocks should be locked to avoid subversive activity, and installing a machine at Gate No-1 and 5 to verify CNICs of all visitors.