ISLAMABAD: Senators on Monday assailed the US decision of holding half of the $7 billion frozen Afghan funds for victims of the Sept 11 terror attacks.

After months of waiting, President Joe Biden last week signed an executive order giving half of the amount to Afghanistan, while keeping the other half for victims of the 9/11 attacks.

Parliamentary Leader of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) in the Senate Sherry Rehman said: “The US spent trillions of dollars in its war in Afghanistan which could have been given to the victims of the 9/11 attacks.”

She said Afghanistan was facing a humanitarian crisis. Over 20 million people, which account for 60 per cent of the country’s population, were facing famine.

Condemn Khanewal lynching incident, heckling of Muslim girl in India

She said according to the United Nations, 97pc of Afghans were living below the poverty line.

While the Taliban must be held accountable for their human rights violations in their country, the world powers should also be questioned over the plight of Afghan people, she said.

Ms Rehman urged the US to return the money to Afghanistan so that the poor Afghan people could be protected from famine.

Speaking on the lynching incident in Khanewal, she said: “We must strongly condemn this premeditated murder.”

She said the cases of lynching should be dealt sternly. “This barbarism should not be treated as a regular law-and-order problem.”

Parliamentary Leader of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) in the Senate Azam Nazeer Tarar said that the public lynching has become a menace in the country. He underlined the need for promoting a culture of tolerance in the country.

Leader of the House Dr Shahzad Waseem said that all political parties and society as a whole opposed the specific mindset behind lynching incidents except few ones who carry on with such extremist thoughts.

PML-N Senator Irfanul Haque Siddiqui said that the Senate Committee on Human Rights should recommend steps to avoid lynching incidents in the future as this was not the first such incident in the country.

He stressed the need for establishing special courts to try culprits involved in lynching incidents. He proposed to form a broader house committee to look into the matter besides taking steps to bring society out of this menace.

Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) Senator Ejaz Chaudhry appealed to courts to decide all pending cases in which people involved in lynching incidents were being tried.

PML-N Senator Sajid Mir said that the public couldn’t be allowed to take the law into their own hands. “No one supports such incidents.” He said all culprits involved in such incidents should be brought to book to stop such incidents.

Muslims in India

The Senate also condemned the incident of heckling of a Muslim girl wearing Hijab by a mob in the Indian state of Karnataka.

Leader of the House Dr Shahzad Waseem moved a motion on Feb 11 for a debate on the issue and the chair had decided to hold two-hour discussion on Monday.

Taking part in the debate on the issue, senators said that extremist acts against Muslims in India were shameful and had exposed the brutal face of India before the world.

Published in Dawn, February 15th, 2022