Daily Times

Senate’s Standing Committee on Interior Chairman Rehman Malik Friday said that no one has the license to kill anyone.

He stated this while presiding over a committee’s meeting on Sahiwal tragedy.

The senator said that the committee would pursue the case until solid reasons behind the Sahiwal tragedy are known.

The meeting was also attended by senators Azam Swati, Kalsoom Parveen, Waseem Shehzad, Waseem Shehzad, Punjab police chief and provincial home secretary.

It might be mentioned that the relatives of Sahiwal tragedy victims also arrived to attend the meeting but they were barred by police officials from attending the meeting over unknown reasons.

“The Senate has handed over the inquiry into the Sahiwal tragedy to the committee to find the real causes,” Malik told the committee.

“We have sent a file of 42 questions to the Interior Ministry and the Punjab government regarding the accident,” he said, adding that the provincial police chief had answers some questions but sought more time to reply the remaining ones.

Malik ordered authorities concerned to complete investigation within a month and submit its final report to the committee.

Punjab Police Inspector General Amjad Javeed Saleemi told the committee that Zeeshan was part of a terrorist group. He said that the CTD’s only target was Zeeshan, and the not other members of the family.

The Punjab home secretary insisted that that Zeeshan was a terrorist and that the CTD had been monitoring him for the past many days. To this, the chairman sought concrete evidence to prove that Zeeshan was a terrorist, and added that the committee would give its final recommendations after reviewing all details.

Separately, Minister of State for Revenue Hammad Azhar said that a committee had been formed to find out ways to shift the people, who were displaced from the land of Quaid-e-Azam University, to model villages.

He was responding to a calling attention notice moved by Javed Abbasi.

The House also resumed discussion on the Finance Supplementary (Second Amendment), 2019.

Taking part in the debate, Sikandar Mandhro said the supplementary finance bill envisaged no relief for the poor segment of the society. He said relief had only been extended to the corporate sector and businesses. He said government was not fulfilling its promises made in its manifesto.

Mian Raza Rabbani termed the budget class oriented, benefitting the business class of the country. He said there was no relief for the common man, middle and salaried class. He said government had increased gas and power tariffs as well as imposed new taxes on the dictation of International Monetary Fund.

Mushtaq Ahmed said prices of essential items were on the rise over the past five months. He said the government should also have in the supplementary Finance Bill announced abolishment of interest and a mechanism to recover the plundered amount. He said Pakistan could not achieve economic stability without breaking the debt trap. He said concrete steps were needed to uplift the agriculture and industrial sectors in order to ensure sustainable development.

Azam Swati said previous governments were responsible for the current crisis and plight of poor people. He said the government was taking all possible steps for the revival of economy.

Published in Daily Times, January 26^th 2019.