Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: In the midst of a storm of corruption in each and every department, the Chairman Senate, Raza Rabbani, has created a precedent of honesty for others by purchasing the furniture for his parliament’s chamber from his own pocket.

Sources told Daily Times that Mian Raza Raabani had changed the furniture of his office at the Parliament House recently and paid Rs 0.65 million out of his pocket.

He also told his staff that he had reserved the right of taking the furniture with him after the expiry of his tenure as Chairman of the upper house of parliament.

When Rabani chose the furniture for his office , then his staff told him that giving an advertisement in the media for the tender of procuring the furniture was a must as per rules and regulations. Then he paid the amount from his own pocket.

On Thursday, he also gave an Eid Milan Party to the entire staff of the Senate in which everyone, from peon to secretary, hugged him and exchanged Eid greetings without observing any protocol. Raza Rabani paid all the expenses of the party from his own pocket.

Moreover he also purchased cufflinks with the insignia of the Senate which he used to give to foreign dignitaries who visited him. He also gave a pair of studs to his four close members of parliament, but he deposited Rs 4000 for each in the national exchequer out of his own pocket

He also refrains on providing official protocol to his friends and relatives who come to see him from the other cities of the country . He always uses hired vehicles for them instead of state cars.

Recently tests were conducted to appoint some 20 clerks in the Senate on internship basis. Several of the senior leaders of the PPP and his cohorts approached him and recommended for the selection of their blue eyed candidates, but the man of principles issued instructions that only those people would be inducted who qualify in the written test and released the names of successful candidates on the Senate’s website.

In this way all the recommendations met their own death.

The Chairman Senate also hears the complaints of the staff for two hours once in a week in privacy and no officer of the Senate can sit in his chambers at that time. Moreover for the first time ever in the Senate’s history the chairman has started to take direct action on people’s complaints.

In a country where corruption of Rs 12 billion takes place on a daily basis, and the leadership of the party to which Rabani belongs, has been levelled charges of mega corruption amounting to billions of rupees, a honest and sincere leader from the same party is a ray of hope in pitch black darkness.

The government as well as the opposition has so many charges of exploitation of official resources as PM Nawaz Sharif came back to the country via a charted flight, which caused a loss of Rs 300 million to the national kitty. But the dead honest politician Raza Rabbani has become an example of honesty for the entire leadership of the country.