ISLAMABAD, Dec 31: A Senate committee on Wednesday asked the bureaucracy to mend its ways and respect the elected representatives.

The Senate Committee on Rules of Procedures and Privileges met at the Parliament House under the chairmanship of Senator Syed Tahir Hussain Mashhadi to consider a privilege motion moved by Senator Liaquat Ali Bangulzai against the secretary Ministry of Religious Affairs.

It observed that the bureaucracy must learn to respect the elected representatives of the people and to accord priority to their complaints, as and when they visit various ministries and government offices in connection with redressal of public grievances.

The committee members were of the view that by and large there were complaints regarding highhandedness of superior bureaucracy.

“This mindset and attitude must change,” they said, adding that, “public servants must learn to serve the people and their elected representatives.”

Earlier, Senator Bangulzai explained that he made a number of telephone calls to the religious affairs secretary, who did not even think it appropriate to return the calls.

The calls, he said, were made in the public interest in connection with the work of large number of Hujjaj from Balochistan province, who had not been issued Haj passports on time and who were languishing in Haji Camps in -9ºC temperatures.

He alleged that gross mismanagement was witnessed and large number of people from his province could not perform Haj. He said if the secretary was unwell, he could have easily assigned the task to some assistant secretary/joint secretary to look into the matter.