ISLAMABAD, June 20: Senate Chairman Mohammadmian Soomro on Monday disallowed a privilege motion moved by 12 senators against the defence minister for refusing to appear before the Senate Standing Committee on Defence and explaining the matters related to Fauji Foundation. The chairman dismissed the motion as out of order by observing the minister responded to the Standing Committee on Defence and explained his position that he could not appear on or against Fauji Foundation since it was deemed to be a private entity.
Mr Soomro said a privilege motion could have been referred to the committee had the minister not responded to the committee.
Earlier, Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Dr Sher Afgan Niazi opposed the motion on the grounds that a matter which had been discussed in the National Assembly could not be raised in the Senate unless a time period of four months had elapsed.
Leader of the Opposition in the Senate Raza Rabbani, Sardar Mehtab and Farhatullah Babar were among the 12 senators who moved the privilege motion on June 6.
The privilege motion, while citing the reasons for Senate’s intervention, said the defence minister disregarded a notice of the defence committee and refused to appear before it on the ground that it had no jurisdiction to appear on or against Fauji Foundation.
Arguing in favour of the motion, Senator Babar pleaded that contention of the defence minister was not only wrong, contrary to facts and against the rules but also amounted to deliberately obstructing the working of the standing committee.
“It has brought disrespect to the committee and the parliament. It amounts to setting a new and dangerous precedent by allowing those invited to the meeting to take the position that they have no jurisdiction to appear and thereby defeat the purposes of a committee of the parliament,” he said.
Senator Babar said the defence committee wanted to examine the MD of Fauji Foundation, the defence secretary and other officials concerned about the Khoski Sugar Mills and wanted to look up the record, but the defence minister declined on the ground that the foundation was a private entity.
Senator Babar said he could argue in favour of the contention that Fauji Foundation was not a private entity.
“If the foundation was a private entity why was its head a three-star serving general appointed by the GHQ? Is there any other example of a serving military officer being posted to any private organization,” he asked.
Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Dr Sher Afgan Niazi, however, opposed the question of privilege upon which the chairman disallowed it.
PRIVILEGE MOTIONS: Senate Chairman Mohammadmian Soomro ruled that no restriction could be put on the chairman to seek the views of a minister or not regarding a privilege motion.
The observation was given by the chairman after an hour and a half quality debate on the rules of procedure in which Dr Sher Afgan and senators Anwer Bhinder, Raza Rabbani, Prof Khurshid Ahmed and Khalid Ranjha contested the interpretation of rules on admissibility of a privilege motion.
Contrary to previous traditions when contentious issues lead to pandemonium or exchange of allegations on both sides of the isle, the senators debated the issue in a civilized manner with strength of arguments and counter-arguments.
Commenting on the quality of the debate, the Senate chairman said the arguments from both sides were “informative and educative” with each side supporting their point with references.
The chairman observed that there was a difference between rules and traditions but the traditions facilitated in smooth running of the house. He directed the state minister for interior to respond to a privilege motion moved by MMA’s Senator Prof Khurshid Ahmed regarding the alliance’s April 2 strike.
Minister of State for Interior Shahzad Waseem opposed the privilege motion and said since the matter was pending adjudication before the Lahore High Court, the matter should not be referred to the privileges committee.
He said during the April 2 strike call by the MMA, 10 policemen and five citizens were injured at a place. He said one citizen lost his life and an FIR was registered in the case.
The Senate chairman ruled the motion out of order after the mover agreed not to press it further.
CII: The Senate chairman directed Minister for Religious Affairs Ijazul Haq to lay the reports of the Council of Islamic Ideology (CII) in the library of the Senate and National Assembly.