ISLAMABAD: All parties talk about ending the VIP culture, but when it comes to perks and privileges for themselves they flock together like the birds of a feather.

A resolution recommending the government to “extend facilities of VIPs” to former members of parliament, their spouses and children is on the agenda of the Senate’s Monday sitting.

The resolution urging the government to issue “gratis / blue passports to the spouses and children” of former members of parliament has been signed by nine Senators belonging to six political parties.

Although no PML-N member has signed the resolution, one of the movers claimed that senators of the ruling party had assured them of supporting the resolution.

Members of the ANP, MQM and Jamaat-i-Islami also did not sign the resolution.

“This House recommends that the government may extend usual facilities of VIPs to all ex-members of Majlis-i-Shoora (Parliament) of Pakistan, including the gratis / blue passports to their spouses and children,” reads the resolution.

The resolution has been moved by Salim Mandvi­wala, Fateh Mohammad Hasni and Saifullah Bangash of the PPP, Mohsin Aziz of PTI, Kamil Ali Agha of PML-Q, Usman Kakar of Pakhtun­khwa Milli Awami Party, Naseema Ehsan of Baloch­istan National Party-Awami, Mufti Abdul Sattar of JUI-F and Mohsin Leghari, an independent senator sitting on the treasury benches.

When contacted, Mohsin Aziz, whose PTI has been campaigning for ending the VIP culture from the country, said the resolution would not promote the VIP culture.

He admitted that he was reluctant to sign the resolution but a PPP senator persuaded him to do so. Former senators were already getting these facilities but their family members were not entitled to them, he added.

Mr Aziz said children meant people below the age of 18 years and there would be few ex-senators who had children below that age.

“The resolution has nothing to do with the VIP culture,” said PPP’s Salim Mandviwala, one of the movers of the resolution. When contacted, he said no financial benefits were involved in it.

He claimed that a number of former senators, including a former Senate chairman, had contacted him and informed him about problems they faced while travelling to foreign countries with their families.

He said former senators felt embarrassed when their spouses and children got different treatment at airports and other places because they possessed ordinary passport.

The PPP senator claimed that the said facilities were already available to sitting and former members of the Senate and National Assembly. Moreover, he said, government employees above grade-16 were already getting these facilities.

When asked why no-one from the PML-N had signed the resolution, he said perhaps no Senator from the party was in the room when he was getting signatures. He claimed that some PML-N members had assured him that they would support the resolution.

“However, if the PML-N opposed the resolution we will withdraw it,” he said.

MQM’s parliamentary leader in the Senate Tahir Mashhadi said his party would support the resolution as far as the facilities were concerned for spouses, but not for children of senators.

No-one from the PML-N could be contacted for comment.

The Senate will take up another resolution moved by Mr Mashhadi, asking the government to take “strict measures for the security of Parliament Lodges”, the official residence of members of the National Assembly and the Senate.

Published in Dawn, November 9th, 2015

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