ISLAMABAD: Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan was praised in the Senate on Monday for his response to a UAE minister’s remarks against Pakistan for its stance over Yemen crisis when he came to house after a gap of 17 months, ending his unannounced boycott of the upper house of parliament.

The senators received the minister with desk-thumping as he entered the house when a debate was continuing on the status of the standard of education in the country on a motion that had been tabled by Nawabzada Saifullah Magsi.

“I welcome Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar after a long long absence,” said Senate Chairman Raza Rabbani, who had been in the forefront of the opposition’s protest against the alleged misconduct of the interior minister. At that time Chaudhry Nisar had refused to withdraw a wrong reply given by his ministry to the house during the question hour.

Read: Nisar hits out at UAE minister for 'threatening' Pakistan

The minister had preferred not to attend the Senate sittings when the opposition members sought an apology. The opposition members boycotted many Senate sittings and for the first time in the country’s parliamentary history, even held a parallel Senate session outside the Parliament House building.

On Sunday, the interior minister in a hard-hitting statement had declared the remarks of UAE Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Dr Anwar Mohammed Gargash against the parliamentary resolution on Yemen situation as “threatening, unacceptable and an insult to the Pakistani nation”.

PML-Q Senator Mushahid Hussain Sayed termed the interior minister’s statement “bold”, saying he had demonstrated that someone in the government had the “guts” to speak out.

Chaudhry Nisar was also lauded by Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) Senator Mohsin Aziz, who termed it “a very good statement”. The PTI senator said that the statement of the UAE minister was “humiliating and derogatory”.

Jamaat-i-Islami chief Sirajul Haq and Ilyas Bilour of the Awami National Party (ANP) also welcomed the interior minister to the house.

Earlier, the Senate adopted a motion seeking appointment of a special committee under MQM’s Tahir Mashhadi on a temporary basis to examine questions involving breach of privilege till the constitution of the house committee on Rules and Procedure and Privilege.

Published in Dawn, April 14th, 2015

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