ISLAMABAD: The Standing Committee on Accountability and Discipline (SCAD) has completed inquiry and reserved its ruling in the MNA Riaz Fatyana case, who alleged that a brawl between two personalities from the Ministry of Climate Change compromised Pakistan’s position at an international conference.

“MNA Riaz Fatyana has submitted a written response with the Standing Committee on Accountability. The committee will announce its decision soon,” a government spokesman told Dawn on Sunday.

In December, the PTI had issued a show-cause notice to its MNA Riaz Fatyana for allegedly making “unreasonable” demands at the recently held climate conference in Glasgow, United Kingdom and making “false” allegations against two members of the federal cabinet.

Decision to be announced soon, govt spokesman says

The notice was issued to the MNA from Toba Tek Singh on the complaint of Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Climate Change Malik Amin Aslam, days after Mr Fatyana alleged that the former had a brawl with Minister of State for Climate Change Zartaj Gul while attending the conference.

Mr Fatyana made the allegations during a meeting of the parliament’s Public Accounts Committee on Nov 25 and this was widely covered by the media. He had thus forth been asked to submit a written statement on or before Dec 4, along with relevant documents and evidence. “You have to show cause as to why we should not proceed against you. The nature of this disciplinary proceeding shall be inquisitorial,” the notice issued to Mr Fatyana stated.

“Upon your return, as a member of the Public Accounts Committee, you have made some absurd and totally fabricated and false assertions in the meeting held on Nov 25, including that there was a brawl between two senior officials and Zartaj Gul, which led to her leaving the conference early. However, she had left early only to attend the joint session of the parliament,” read the notice, a copy of which is available with Dawn.

“This false news was taken up by the media and caused irreparable damage to the personal reputation of the complainant, the party’s image as well as performance of Pakistan at the COP-26 which got national as well as global acclaim,” it added.

In his complaint, Mr Aslam alleged that MNA Riaz Fatyana had come to Glasgow to attend the conference on climate change funded by a non-governmental organisation (NGO) and visited the Pakistani pavilion a couple of times where he made some “unreasonable demands” such as becoming part of the official delegation, which needed the prime minister’s approval.

Mr Aslam also alleged that Mr Fatyana had demanded an official vehicle and phone SIMs for his use, “but these could, obviously, not be met as he was not part of official country delegation”.

When contacted, Mr Aslam told Dawn that he and Ms Gul had issued a joint statement denying any brawl or misunderstanding at COP-26 and termed the allegations made by Riaz Fatyana “baseless”.

“Riaz Fatyana has submitted his response with the Standing Committee on Accountability and Disciplineand now we are waiting for the outcome,” said Mr Aslam, maintaining that Mr Fatyana was not a part of Pakistan’s official delegation and was representing a non-governmental organisation without any invitation of the Ministry of Climate Change.

Despite several attempts to contact Mr Fatyana, he could not be reached for comment.

Published in Dawn, December 27th, 2021