ISLAMABAD, March 30: National Assembly Speaker Chaudhry Amir Hussain on Tuesday reserved his ruling on a privilege motion moved by the opposition members against people, who they alleged had prevented some of them by diverting their flights from attending the joint session of parliament on the day the president addressed it.
"After hearing arguments on the admissibility of the privilege motion from both sides, I reserve my ruling on the matter," observed the speaker on the motions moved separately by the PML-N member Tehmina Daultana, PPP's chief whip Khurshid Shah, Sherry Rehman and Navid Qamar.
Members of the treasury benches had opposed the motion and justified the diversion of flights, carrying opposition as well as members of the ruling party, citing contradictory reasons.
Minister of State for Law and Parliamentary Affairs, Raza Hayat Hiraj, who was also on the same flight as Tehmina Daultana which was diverted claimed that the facts being narrated by Ms Daultana were not true as the flight was delayed and later it was flown to Peshawar from Islamabad because of inclement weather. Therefore, her privilege motion does not require the intervention of the house and should not be referred to the privilege committee, he argued.
On the other hand, Parliamentary Secretary for Defence Maj (retd) Tanveer Hussain told the lower house that these flights were diverted because of a high security alert over Islamabad airport on that day.
Khurshid Shah, however, offered to withdraw the privilege motion if it was proved by the treasury that all other Islamabad bound flights on that day were also diverted to other destinations.
Tehmina Daultana, who was seemingly suffering from a sore throat, kept shouting to be heard by the Speaker. She said she was not allowed to disembark from the aircraft at the Islamabad airport while the aircraft kept standing on the Islamabad tarmac for an hour and then it took off and landed at the Peshawar airport where they were detained in a lounge for another hour and were made to listen to the address of the president on the television.
Authorities, she said, were so callous that they even refused to pay any heed to the request of a small boy who was diabetic and was in dire need of insulin. She charged that the Airport Police Station refused to register a case against those responsible for the incident.
Navid Qamar said the privilege of the opposition members was breached because concerted efforts were made to prevent some of them from attending the joint session and, therefore, the incident required immediate intervention of the house.
He said when a member of the house, even if he was involved in a crime could not be arrested 15 days before and after a parliament session, how can he or she be kept from attending a session through unfair means.
Therefore, the motive to prevent Ms Daulatana and Khurshid Shah from attending the house was clear and prima facie amounted to breach of the privilege.