PAKISTANI NA’s unanimous call for law to tame agencies

ISLAMABAD: The National Assembly came out strongly on Wednesday to account for so-called missing persons and, through a unanimous resolution, called for enacting a comprehensive law to regulate intelligen-ce and security agencies often blamed for disappearances and extra-judicial killings of dissidents.

The move came on the first day of what will be the last session of the present lower house’s fourth parliamentary year, which was also marked by the adoption of a key labour law two days before its existing equivalent was due to lapse and a government promise to legislate to penalise obstructing women from voting in elections.

The resolution, which envisages a bi-partisan committee to make recommendations, was moved by the opposition Pakistan Muslim League-N and the consent of the Pakistan People’s Party-led ruling coalition facilitated its introduction outside the day’s agenda and immediate adoption.

A resolution on the issue, initiated by a retiring Jamaat-i-Islami lawmaker, was unanimously passed also by the Senate on March 7 but that draft was confined to expressing ‘deep concern’ over what it called “abductions and forced disappearances” and asked the federal and provincial governments to take “immediate and effective steps” for a speedy recovery and release of victims.

The resolution passed on Wednesday said the National Assembly was “deeply disturbed over the plight of the families of persons who have been missing for long periods”, noting that allegations of “acts of omissions, complicity and concealment” against state agencies were tarnishing their image despite their “tremendous sacrifices in the defence and security of Pakistan.”

It called upon the government to “ensure prevalence of the rule of law” and demanded implementation of the Supreme Court’s observations and recommendations of a Commission of Enquiry on Enforced Disappearances for the “enactment of necessary legislation to resolve the problems of missing persons” as well as recommendations of an inquiry commission on the murder of journalist Saleem Shahzad “for a comprehensive framework law to regulate the role and functioning of the intelligence and security agencies”.

The resolution authorised the National Assembly speaker to constitute an eight-member special committee in consultation with the prime minister and the opposition leader, with equal representation from both sides of the house, to “monitor progress in this regard”.

The committee, it said, would submit its recommendations within two months about additional measures required after meeting representatives of the families of the missing persons and victims of terrorism and getting briefings by the concerned intelligence and security agencies.

Opposition leader Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan congratulated the house for the unanimous vote on the resolution but said that it was “a job half done — or quarter done” — towards reversing what he called a lowly tradition set by former president Pervez Musharraf by allowing disappearances once practised under Latin American dictatorships and called for the implementation of the resolution.

Interior Minister Rehman Malik, apparently talking only about Balochistan, quoted the chairman of a commission on missing persons, as putting the present number of missing people at as low as 47 compared with estimates of 6,000 given by the banned Balochistan Liberation Army, 935 by the provincial chief minister’s office and 365 as stated before the Supreme Court.

He promised to give details to the house on Thursday, but was advised by Deputy Speaker Faisal Karim Kundi to better state the government’s point of view before the parliamentary committee when it is constituted.

Later, the house hurriedly passed the Industrial Relations Bill of Senator Raza Rabbani that sought to “consolidate and rationalise” the law relating to formation of trade unions and improvement of relations between employers and workmen in the Islamabad Capital Territory and in trans-provincial establishments and industry.

The bill was not on the agenda for the day but was taken up on the demand of PPP chief whip Khursheed Ahmed Shah and passed immediately after being moved by PPP information secretary Qamar Zaman Kaira, just two days before the expiry of a presidential ordinance. It now needs only a presidential assent to come into force.

Earlier, Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Moula Bakhsh Chandio, responding to a call-attention notice from five PPP members, told the house that the government intended to bring a law to penalise the practice of restraining women from voting in elections as seen in some parts of the country.

The new law, he said, would empower the Election Commission to order re-election in a constituency if the number of polled votes of women were found less than 10 per cent of their total and refuse election symbols to parties or candidates found guilty of restraining women from casting their votes.

“Jiay Bhutto” (long live Bhutto) chants rang out from the visitors’ galleries before the start of proceedings with oath-taking by six newly elected lawmakers, including a son of Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, Ali Musa Gilani. But the visitors later obeyed the deputy speaker’s order to refrain from slogan-chanting when he administered the oath of office to them.