Daily Times

Senate Standing Committee on Interior in its meeting on Thursday unanimously adopted resolution felicitating nation on the auspicious day of independence and resolving commitment to serve Pakistan to the best of abilities as a dignified and independent nation.

The committee strongly condemned the ongoing Indian curfew in occupied valley of Kashmir and urged the government to take more rigorous actions to counter the propaganda and illegal moves of the Indian government. The committee condemned the cyber attack by Indian spy network. Senator Rehman Malik said that India is involved in cyber crimes worldwide and stealing sensitive national data of various countries for different nefarious activities. He said that Indian hackers steal data of different countries and sell it to rival countries and the data of individuals for blackmailing. He said he had raised this matter in committee meetings back in 2018 and had directed Ministry of Interior to take extraordinary measures to block such attacks.

The issue of placing Pakistan in FATF’s grey list was also discussed in the committee. Senator Rehman Malik expressed that FATF is playing a discriminatory role as it is victimizing Pakistan while favouring India. He informed the committee that he had written a letter to FATF president to remove Pakistan’s name from its grey list and proceed against Prime Minister Modi for his role in money laundering and terror financing adding but discriminatory treatment being meted out to Pakistan.

The committee considered the matter of ratification of the nomination of Senator Rana Maqbool Ahmed belonging to opposition benches in place of Senator Kauda Babar as member of Board of Governors of National Counter Terrorism Authority (NACTA).

The committee considered the point of public importance “Rights of Special People” that was raised by Senator Dr Shahzad Wasim in the House on January 13, 2020. Senator Rehman Malik while appreciating the mover said that the existing procedure for issuance of CNIC for disabled persons should be reviewed on merit basis and the government should prepare comprehensive SOPs for issuance of CNIC with special logo of disability.

The committee also considered matter of starred question that the residents of a number of private housing societies in the ICT are not being provided electricity and gas connections on account of said housing societies being declared illegal by the CDA. The matter was raised by Senator Bahramand Khan Tangi in the House on February 3, 2020. Senator Rehman Malik said that the residents should not be punished for any illegal act of the owners of the private housing societies.