Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: National Assembly Speaker Ayaz Sadiq has foiled an attempt made by two senior officers of the National Assembly Secretariat to make a junior officer ‘scapegoat’ over issuing the session’s agenda without consultation, it was reliably learnt.

Credible sources told this scribe that the assembly secretariat had put Prevention of Electronic Crimes Bill on session’s agenda on August 3 without taking either the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs or Ministry of Information Technology into confidence.

“Neither parliamentary affairs nor IT Ministry was consulted prior to issuing agenda for the session held on August 3,” sources in the NA Secretariat maintained.

This resulted into sheer embarrassment for the government that failed to maintain quorum and resultantly had to defer passing of the much-trumpeted Cyber Crimes Bill, they said.

The matter came into the speaker’s notice when both Parliamentary Affairs Minister Sheikh Aftab and IT Minister Anusha Rehman lodged protest before him regarding inclusion of Cyber Crimes Bill on agenda without consultation.

Sources said the speaker took serious notice of the incident and summoned the concerned officials for explanation. It was learnt that Special Secretary Qamar Sohail Lodhi and Legislation Joint Secretary Muhammad Muhstaq put entire blame on a junior officer in legislation branch- Superintendent Hassan Gillani.

Sources said both Qamar Sohail Lodhi and Muhammad Mushtaq pressurised Hassan Gillani to take responsibility of wrongdoing with a promise to rescue him later on.

It was learnt that Superintendent Gillani agreed to take the responsibility. The NA speaker held a meeting with the legislation branch over the issue wherein Gillani took the responsibility of issuing the session’s agenda without consulting concerned ministries.Ayaz Sadiq, who was very upset with the situation, directed the secretary to issue Hassan Gillani a show-cause notice and consequently dismiss him from service over sheer negligence.

However, sources said, the situation turned around when another officer sitting in the meeting stood up and narrated how a junior officer was being made a scapegoat by his seniors.

After learning the truth, Speaker Ayaz Sadiq grilled both the special secretary and joint secretary over their attempt to shift the responsibility to an innocent junior officer. The speaker asked both Qamar Sohail Lodhi and Muhammad Mushtaq to give explanation in writing.

Sources said the speaker was seriously considering taking punitive action against both Special Secretary Lodhi and Legislation Joint Secretary Mushtaq.