Daily Times

In a formal letter on Thursday, Pakistan People’s Party Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari has urged the National Assembly speaker to immediately issue production orders in respect of MNAs Ali Wazir and Mohsin Dawar to enable them to take the Lower House into confidence as to what happened to them at the hands of the law enforcing agencies.

The PPP chairman said that he will write another letter on the ‘grave political and security dimensions of the issue’ which he said he had refrained from raising in this letter which is only to seek issuance of production orders of the two MNAs.

“It is almost a week since Ali Wazir, an Honorable Member of the House of which you are the custodian, was arrested on May 26, 2019, by the law enforcing agencies in North Waziristan district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Charged with terrorism, he has been given in the custody of counter-terrorism authorities on physical remand for eight days,” Bilawal wrote in the letter. “Further, it has just been reported that another Member of National Assembly, Mohsin Dawar, sought by law enforcing agencies has appeared before police in Bannu in connection with FIR filed against him,” he added.

“Under Rule 103 of the Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in the National Assembly, whenever a member is arrested on criminal charges, the authority concerned must immediately inform the Honorable Speaker, the custodian of the House,” the PPP chairman wrote. “Rule 105 of the Conduct of Business in the National Assembly requires that as soon as the honorable Speaker receives such information, he shall forthwith announce it to the Assembly if in session and if not in session then by circulation,” he continued. “I am not sure whether the Honorable Speaker was immediately informed of the arrest of MNA Ali Wazir or about the status of case against MNA Mohisn Wazir as required under the Rules,” he added.

“However, when the House met the next day on Monday May 27, it was naturally expected that the Honorable Speaker would inform the Members and also issue production orders of MNA Ali Wazir under the Rules so that the latter could also explain his version of the events. Neither the House was informed about the arrest on criminal charges of MNA Ali Wazir nor was his production order issued. PPP MNA Mr. Naveed Qamar formally raised it but his plea was ignored,” he added.

“The purpose of writing this letter is to request you Mr Speaker to immediately issue production orders of MNA Ali Wazir provided under the rules. In case if in the meantime MNA Mohsin Dawar has also been arrested, his production orders should also be issued,” the PPP chief demanded. “This is absolutely necessary, indeed critical, in view of the grave and far-reaching implications of the arrest on charges of terrorism of honorable members of the House, who have actually been fighting terrorism. Nearly a dozen family members of Ali Wazir have been martyred in fight against terrorism and it is highly worrying to charge him and Mohsin Dawar with terrorism,” he concluded.

Separately, in his tweets, Bilawal said that Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) wants a selected judiciary and media.

On the resignation of Zahid Ebrahim as additional attorney general, Bilawal said he resigned in protest. “PTI government’s attack on democracy and judiciary has continued. All power must pass to the people or everything will perish,” he tweeted.

At a meeting with PPP South Punjab President and former governor Makhdoom Ahmed Mehmood at Zardari House in Islamabad, Bilawal instructed party leaders to contact other political parties with regard to establishing a new province in southern Punjab. During the meeting, issues of southern Punjab also came under discussion.