ISLAMABAD: Senators sitting on the treasury and opposition benches on Monday linked the last month’s terrorist attack on a Quetta hospital to “failure of intelligence agencies” and called for a thorough investigation to fix responsibility.

Taking part in a debate on the Aug 8 attack on Quetta’s Civil Hospital that killed over 70 people, mostly lawyers, the members of the upper house criticised the federal government for its alleged failure to implement the National Action Plan (NAP) against terrorism that had been announced after the 2014 assault on the Army Public School in Peshawar.

The senators belonging to Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa took exception to the statements made by Army Chief Gen Raheel Sharif and Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif that the Quetta suicide bombing was basically an attack on the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, saying “the project does not exist in the two provinces”.

Later, the opposition’s walkout over the absence of ministers from the house disrupted the proceedings. Senator Ahmed Hassan, who was presiding over the session in the absence of the chairman and the deputy chairman, had to adjourn the sitting till Tuesday due to lack of quorum.

Opposition’s walkout over absence of ministers disrupts upper house proceedings

Interestingly, the quorum was pointed out by PML-N Senator Kalsoom Parveen. The house did not take up even a single item on the agenda issued for the opening day of the new session.

Opposition Leader Aitzaz Ahsan, pointing towards empty treasury benches, said the members were holding a debate on a major terrorist attack but there was no one from the government to hear them. “This shows seriousness of the government,” he said while announcing the walkout which was also joined by the members sitting on the treasury benches belonging to the Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party (PkMAP), the National Party and the Federally Administered Tribal Areas.

Earlier, Usman Kakar of the PkMAP delivered the harshest speech of the day, holding the “military establishment” responsible for the current security situation in the country.

He alleged that intelligence agencies were still interfering in Afghanistan’s affairs and regretted that important decisions on foreign policy issues were being made outside the parliament.

Mr Kakar also questioned claims about the success of the Operation Zarb-i-Azb.

“You only provide us figures. At least tell us the names of those (terrorists) killed in the operation,” he said, adding that there were several intelligence agencies in the country and all of them had failed.

Referring to the treason charge against his party’s leader Mehmood Khan Achakzai over his hard-hitting speech on the same issue in the National Assembly, the PkMAP senator lamented those who had held the Constitution in abeyance were called “Mard-i-Momin” but those struggling to uphold it were being dubbed “traitors.”

“If we are called traitors for defending the Constitution, we are proud of being called traitors,” he said and asked the military and the intelligence agencies to stay away from politics.

Parliamentary leader of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement Tahir Mashhadi said the Quetta attack was the result of failure of the federal and provincial governments.

“It is the failure of intelligence agencies but no one is ready to take responsibility,” he said.

He said members of banned organisations were openly taking out rallies carrying photographs of generals but no one was taking action against them. He alleged that terrorists had their hideouts in Punjab but no operation was being carried out against them in the province.

Terming the Quetta carnage a crime against humanity, the PML-Q’s Mushahid Hussain Sayed stressed the need for holding an investigation into the “breach of security”.

“It was a serious security lapse. There is a need to hold thorough investigations to prevent such incidents in future.”

Sehar Kamran of the PPP said two years after the announcement of NAP, they were still counting dead bodies. She claimed that NAP was being implemented only in Sindh.

Nauman Wazir of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf said there was no control over production and transportation of explosives. “There is no intelligence-based activity to counter terrorism and no effort to check source of funding of militant organisations.”

Federal Minister for Ports and Shipping Hasil Bizenjo regretted that the government had not taken any step for registration of seminaries and monitoring the syllabus being taught to their students.

“As far as mercenaries are there, we will continue to face such attacks,” he warned and said without eliminating the ideology, the fight against terrorism could not be won.

The Senate passed a resolution condemning the recent terrorist attacks in Quetta, Mardan and Peshawar and asked the provincial governments of Balochistan and KP to deal with militants with an iron hand. The resolution was read out by Leader of the House Raja Zafarul Haq.

Published in Dawn, September 6th, 2016