ISLAMABAD: Voices of dissent continued to resonate from treasury benches in the Senate against the plan for trial of civilians by military courts.

As politics continued to dominate the proceedings of the House otherwise meant for budget discussion on Thursday, Senator Kamran Murtaza of JUI-F warned against trial of May 9 suspects under the Army Act.

He said that if it happens, the entire system, including the judiciary and political parties, will be responsible for it.

He pointed out that everybody condemned those events, but none talked about taking the matter to its logical conclusion in civil courts.

He said that if the chief justice of Pakistan and the chief justice of LHC had taken notice of the same and got the things on the fast track and the results would have been before the nation, there might have been no talk now of the lack of confidence in the judicial system.

PML-N Senator Nuzhat Sadiq said that the record of May 9 attacks’ planners in the shape of audios and videos was available and the culprits must be punished as it would serve as a deterrent against such acts in future.

Senator Bahramand Tangi of PPP also referred to the May 9 incidents and said PTI chief Imran Khan was not a political leader, but the “head of a terrorist outfit”.

This caused an uproar in the opposition benches, and Senate Chairman Sadiq Sanjrani expunged some objectionable remarks. But Mr Tangi kept on repeating the offending words, creating a furore in the House.

PML-N Senator Prof Sajid Mir said that the mastermind of May 9 mayhem used abusive language against the army chief and other top officers, dubbing them as Mir Jaffar and Mir Sadiq and maligning the political leadership.

Taking part in the debate, PTI’s Zarqa Suhardwardi said the poor man had been further burdened in the budget instead of looking for other options for increased revenues, like focusing on 43 million potential tax evaders, who owned big vehicles, used credit cards and led lavish lifestyles.

She also wondered what the State Bank of Pakistan was doing in such a scenario. She regretted that the economy had been designed in such a way that the government would remain poor/beggar and the ruling elite got richer and richer and remained out of the tax net.

Speaking on a point of public importance, PPP Senator Mian Raza Rabbani said that perhaps nowhere in the world the IMF, which he described as “the agent of global imperialism”, had reviewed a country’s budget and getting implemented its own policies.

Published in Dawn, June 16th, 2023