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Friday March 29, 2024

Senate divided over giving Pak nationality to Afghan refugees

By Mumtaz Alvi
September 19, 2018

ISLAMABAD: The Senate witnessed divisions on Tuesday on giving Pakistani nationality to Afghan refugees, as legislators insisted the matter should be referred to the Parliament for a decision and provinces should also be taken into confidence while others cautioned against granting them Pakistani citizenship.

Senators called for the Senate’s representation in the special committee on rigging. To this, Chairman Muhammad Sadiq Sanjrani agreed to it and said the situation would be clear by Wednesday.

Joint opposition staged walk-out from the House on the issue of ransacking of the house of one Hafeez Buzdar and beating up of his father and brother by the police and then lodging an FIR against them too.

Two nationalist parties: Awami National Party and Pakhtoonkhwa Milli Awami Party welcomed the Prime Minister’s announcement on refugees but said he might not be able to do so. Other senators, including PML-N stiffly opposed the move and called for their honourable repatriation within a year.

Minister for Finance Asad Umar laid before the Senate a copy of the Finance Supplementary (Amendment) Bill, 2018 while the House will initiate debate on the bill on Wednesday.

Chairman Senate Sadiq Sanjarani invited senators to submit their recommendations to the Senate Secretariat within three days and added that no recommendation would be entertained after the lapse of three days.

Finance Minister presented the money bill at a time when the joint opposition had already announced to make token exit from the House not against the bill, but on an issue raised by Senator Mir Hasil Khan Bizenjo regarding the alleged political victimization in Balochistan.

He also waved a photo from his cell phone to the chairman to show him the alleged torture unleashed on a political activist, namely Hafeez Baloch, who had contested election against the incumbent Chief Minister Balochistan.

“Is it that ‘Naya Pakistan’, you have been talking about? where political opponents – the one who will even contest against a chief minister – will have to face brutal police torture on the behest of a chief minister”, he alleged.

The National Party Senator Bizenjo charged that police had conducted a raid at his house and tortured him and other members of his family. Bizenjo then led a walkout protest of the joint opposition from the House.

The chair referred the matter to committee concerned for probe and report. Speaking on points of public importance, various senators opposed the construction of Kalabagh Dam given the reservations expressed by three provinces including Sindh, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan.

Referring to the initiative launched by Chief Justice of Pakistan to construct dams, Senator Usman Kakar of PkMAP said that provincial assemblies of the three provinces had opposed the construction of Kalabagh Dam and also called upon the senators to oppose the idea with ‘one voice’.

He clarified, “we are not opposing dams, but we will resist construction of the controversial Kalabagh.

Senator Abdul Ghafoor Haideri of JUI-F also strongly opposed construction of Kalabagh Dam and noted that people of three provinces had raised serious reservations on the proposed project.

The chair while quoting from Article 68 of the Constitution that conduct of any judge could not be discussed in the House, stopped the JUI-F’s senator from speaking against the Chief Justice also expunged his earlier remarks against the chief justice of Pakistan from the proceedings.

PkMAP Senator Usman Kakar agitated on the alleged disgracing and maligning of Pakhtoons and in Punjab in particular and referred to ads, which depicted the Pakhtoons in such a way to evoke hatred against them. The chair referred the matter to the House committee concerned for deliberations and report.

PML-N Senator Mushahidullah Khan bitterly criticized PTI government for the on-going donation drive for the dams. He pointed out that the work on Diamer Bhasha dam was started during previous governments. He challenged PTI government to come up with a new reservoir project and shun cheap publicity stunt.

“Don’t befool the masses for collection of donations for the dams such as Diamer-Bhasha on which Rs123 billion have already been spent in the past and an additional Rs25 billion was also allocated. If you’re really serious, then go for construction of new dams”, he asked.

He also criticized the PTI for failing to honour its promises with people of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa during its past five year tenure.

PTI’s Senator Faisal Javed rose to point out that India had the capacity to store water for seven months while Egypt for three years but Pakistan’s storage capacity was for a month only. He emphasised the need for building new dams and sought the legislators’ help in this connection.

Earlier, on the issue of giving citizenship to refugees, former interior minister PPP Senator Abdul Rehman Malik pointed out that it had to be the Parliament to decide about giving nationalities to citizens of another country or through what means the government intended to grant citizenship to immigrants.

Mir Kabeer Shahi of the National Party (NP) strongly opposed the Prime Minister’s idea to give nationality to Afghan refugees and warned that his party would strongly resist the move inside and outside the parliament.

Another NP’s Senator Tahir Bizenjo said that issue of Afghan refugees was a sensitive matter and the government needed to take the parliament and the provinces into confidence before taking any decision about their fate.

PML-N Senator Pir Sabir Shah said that the government instead of giving nationality to Afghan refugees should negotiate with international community to make their return possible to Afghanistan.

PkMAP’s Senator Azam Khan Musakhel regretted the point of view of some senators, who opposed the move, saying that his party welcomed the decision and would extend support to the government in this regard.

Sh. Mian Attique of MQM-Pakistan raised the issue of missing of 1661 new mobile phones from Faisalabad dry port and said that the value of the phones was Rs100 million but in the FIR it had been mentioned just Rs15 million. This issue was also referred to the House committee concerned.

Earlier, the House also passed the West Pakistan Juvenile Smoking (Repeal) Bill, 2018 and The West Pakistan Prohibition of Smoking in Cinema Houses (Repeal) Bill, 2018.