Senate body recommends lodging treason case against MQM founder
The Senate’s Standing Committee on Law and Justice on Thursday recommended lodging a treason case against Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) Chief Altaf Hussain under Article 6 of the constitution. The committee’s meeting recommended lodging a case under Article 6 against Altaf Hussain for raising anti-Pakistan slogans. The participants also summoned details of the reference sent to Britain in this respect.
Chairman of the committee, Senator Javed Abbasi, called for a stern action against those who talked against Pakistan.
A massive shift in the opinions of people regarding Altaf Hussain and his party was seen right after he raised antiPakistan slogans in a speech delivered at a gathering of workers from London where he has been living in self-imposed exile for over two decades.
Asking about the details of the reference sent to Britain by the Ministry of Law, the committee said it understood that the people who talked against Pakistan should be punished so that they should not repeat it.
The committee observed that they would not tolerate if anyone talked against Pakistan.
The meeting held at Parliament House was headed by Chairman Javeed Abbassi. During the session, Babar Awan asked the officials of law and justice if any prior approval was taken from the Ministry of Law And Justice or the federal cabinet to send the reference to the British government. He also asked them to share the details of discussion on the reference in the cabinet.
Babar Awan further questioned if any reference was being registered with the Supreme Court against this political party. He also inquired of the officials as to what steps were being taken against the MPA who had spoken against Pakistan.
The committee was of the view that cases should be registered against all those people who had talked against Pakistan. During the meeting, Babar Awan also raised objection on nomination of the prime minister’s delegation of 22 people for highlighting the Kashmir issue. When Senator Farooq H Naik questioned about the areas or departments where the Engineering Council would perform, Minister for Law Zahid Hamid replied the council was working under the Ministry of Since and Technology.
Babar Awan said that “we have complete confidence in scientists of the Ministry of Science”.
The committee gave the Ministry of Science and Technology one-month deadline to present the draft of the building code.
The committee members were of the opinion that a code of conduct should be developed for the engineers so that their performance could be measured.
The Engineering Council’s vice chairman told the committee that “we have developed building codes and other codes” on which Babar Awan got angry and said that “your performance is zero, you can’t provide clean water in the country then how can you develop the other codes”. Babar further remarked that “tell us which code is right and which code is wrong and why the government is giving you Nobel Prize if you want a souvenir then you have to prove your illegibility for this souvenir”.
In his reply, the Ministry of Science and Technology secretary said that the building code and act were two different things.
Talking on the protection of regional languages and amendment bill, Senator Kareem Khawaja said that history was witness that when Pakistan was established, there had been a lot of conflicts on the base of language and a lot of people lost their lives. He said that if in India 26 regional languages could become national language, then why not here.
He said “there was no objection if we use Urudu language in offices, but regional languages should also be given the status of national language”.
Babar Awan said that “Urdu was our national language and nobody could object to it, but if we will talk about bringing three or four languages in constitution, then it would be wrong because in Pakistan different languages were being spoken and other people would object to it”.
Senator Kareem Khawaja said “we can conduct voting on this bill”, but on the appeal of the chairman and other members it was postponed for the next meeting.