ISLAMABAD, Oct 28: The People’s Party Parliamentarians (PPP) has submitted various resolutions to Senate, which called for inquiry into the Kargil war and army officials conduct with the civil administration, and regulating the working of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI).
According to the documents obtained from party sources, four different resolutions and equal number of questions had been submitted to the Senate Secretariat by PPP Senator Farhatullah Khan Babar in the past few days highlighting various issues dealing with army officials. The resolutions have been submitted keeping in view some recent incidents.
Through a resolution, moved under Rule 120 of the Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in the Senate, Mr Babar has asked for legislation to regulate the functioning of intelligence agencies, particularly the ISI.
The resolution states: “This House calls upon the government to enact suitable legislation to regulate the functioning of intelligence agencies and the ISI particularly with respect to issues relating to raids, detention and arrest of suspects in the country”.
The senator has also moved a separate question on the issue that “Will the honourable minister for defence be pleased to state whether there is any law on the statue, and if so to state the law, under which the ISI is authorized to conduct raids and detain and interrogate suspects.”
Through another resolution, moved under Rule 194 of the Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in Senate, Mr Babar has called for setting up a parliamentary committee to hold inquiry into the Kargil war.
The resolution states: “This House resolves that a parliamentary committee be set up to look into and investigate the Kargil incident in its entirety and make recommendations for the avoidance of such incidents in future”. The PPP senator, through a separate question, has asked the defence minister to “state whether any inquiry was held into the Kargil incident and if so whether and when its report will be made public.”
The PPP leader has also highlighted an incident in which a traffic constable was punished for stopping the tinted-glass car of a general in Lahore. In this case also, the senator has moved a resolution and a question. The resolution states: “This House commends the courage shown in the line of duty by the police constable in Lahore on October 15, who flagged down a car with tinted glasses belonging to a senior military officer and was resultantly made to suffer for it”.
In the same resolution, the PPP senator says, “For his courage and sense of duty, the constable may be conferred with a suitable civil award”.
Through a question on the issue, the PPP senator has asked the defence minister to state “whether any inquiry has been held and or action taken or contemplated by the ministry or GHQ into the incident in Lahore on October 15 involving a car belonging to a senior military officer having tinted glasses which was ordered to be flagged down by a police official on duty”. The second part of the question states, “Whether it is a fact that the police official(s) were summoned to the Brigade Headquarters in Lahore and handcuffed, and if so, the law under which such action was taken”.
In the fourth resolution, the PPP senator has drawn the attention towards exemption of defence personnel from payment of toll tax. The resolution states: “This House resolves that the present practice of exempting the serving defence personnel from payment of tax on the toll plazas in the country by the NHA be discontinued immediately. It further resolves that the defence personnel also be required to pay toll tax as the continuing discrimination breeds resentment against defence personnel and gravely undermines public respect for them”.
By submitting a separate question, Mr Babar has asked the minister for communication “to state the categories of commuters exempted from tax on toll plazas set up by the NHA on Islamabad- Peshawar Road as on October 12, 1999 and the categories of exempted commuters as on October 12, 2003 and in the event of a difference between the exempted categories on the two dates, the reason thereof?”
Mr Babar, when contacted, said the time had come to raise such issues in parliament to correct the “imbalance” in the civil-military relations and to hold military officials accountable for various “acts of omission and commission.” He said the purpose of bringing such issues to the parliament was also to make army realize that its image was going down in the eyes of a common man and there was a need to improve its public standing.