Karachi issue: Senate opposition and where is Eshanullah Eshan?

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Senators for referring Karachi matter to body of whole House

ISLAMABAD: In a rare development, Senate Chairman Sadiq Sanjrani Wednesday in the Senate urged chief ministers of the four provinces to help alleviate sufferings of Karachi, as legislators warned...

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ISLAMABAD: In a rare development, Senate Chairman Sadiq Sanjrani Wednesday in the Senate urged chief ministers of the four provinces to help alleviate sufferings of Karachi, as legislators warned the mega city was sinking, which was the main revenue generator for the country.


PML-N Senator Mushahid Hussain Sayed strongly advocated convening of an all-parties conference on Karachi which, he added, isthe future of Pakistan. “If an APC is to be held, it should be on Karachi and all parties must rise above politics to collectively contribute to addressing its issues,” he maintained. He proposed building a national sports museum to pay tribute to the sports greats and instill new spirit among youth about sports.

JI Senator Mushtaq Ahmad and Senator Mushahidullah Khan of PML-N raised the issue on the floor of the House. They called for referring the matter to the committee of the whole of the House.

Senator Mushahiduallah wondered where those 14 MNs and 22 MPAs were from Karachi, belonging to PTI and asked if they could not visit the affected areas of the mega city and express solidarity with the people of Karachi.

“The president and governor belong to Karachi. All this drama is staged to browbeat the opposition. If there was something wrong in relation to Nawaz Sharif’s going to London, catch Punjab government, the provincial minister and Dr Faisal Sultan but don’t ridicule the one who says he is ill,” he said.

Senator Mushtaq raised the matter of removal of PTB MD, who had got review of 500 books of private schools and of which, 100 were banned by the Punjab government for containing blasphemous, misleading content on top religious personalities and distorted facts even against Pakistan Movement leaders. He said instead of awarding him for this job, the MD was removed. He called for his reinstatement and completing review of remaining books.

PkMAP Senator Usman Kakar raised the recent gory incident of kidnapping of Nasreen Irshad advocate, who was abducted from Okara on August 15 and was found in a bad condition four days later. He said the matter should be referred to the House Human Rights Committee.

He noted that the lady advocate, who was rescued after her abduction in Depalpur, Okara District and he lamented that all the state institutions and even the ‘mazdoor’ media was silent and so was Prime Minister’s cell. He added the advocate played active role in the lawyers' movement against former president General Pervez Musharraf and the entire state should be ashamed of what happened to him, asking what message was being given to world through this silence.

“The government and agencies should be ashamed of this incident. Where are the Prime Minister, political parties and media on this incident?” he asked.

He said that he admitted that injustice was being meted out to Mir Shakeel-ur-Rahman, the owner of Jang and Geo Group and this was being protested daily. But the media and anchorpersons were not talking about what happened to this innocent and brave woman.

In addition, Usman Kakar asked the Defence Minister to come to Parliament and give statement on the escape of the spokesperson of the banned Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) Ehsanullah Ehsan and the alleged audio tab that followed.

He said that a well-known terrorist was kept in a safe house in Peshawar under the agreement, on which the 'labor' media and the opposition were silent. He claimed that everyone listened to the audio tab of Ehsanullah Ehsan in which he said that he was asked to be the head of Death Squad.

“In this context, the current government is a terrorist friendly government, now it is not known what Ehsanullah Ehsan will do. Our people have great concern that now a new fire will rage, “ he maintained.

Major General Babar Iftikhar, DG ISPR, while confirming the question regarding the escape of Ehsanullah Ehsan and the alleged audio tab, said that Ehsanullah Ehsan was being used during the operation and he escaped.

He had rejected the allegations made in the alleged audiotape of Ehsanullah Ehsan, saying, “the allegations made in the alleged audiotape have nothing to do with the facts, they are completely baseless”.