ISLAMABAD: The Senate dropped on Monday a controversial resolution urging the government to “extend facilities of VIPs” to all former members of parliament, their spouses and children, after three movers wrote letters to the chairman requesting him to remove their names from it.

The other six movers were not present at the time the agenda item was taken up.

“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 that was dropped in anticipation of public criticism of the move.

Senate Chairman Raza Rabbani informed the house that PPP’s Salim Mandviwala, PTI’s Mohsin Aziz and independent senator Mohsin Leghari had requested through letters that their names be taken out of the list of movers.

Earlier, Adviser to the Prime Minister on Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz informed the house that Pakistan could consider taking India to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) over Narendera Modi’s confession about Indian involvement in Pakistan’s break-up in 1971.

Aziz tells committee Pakistan may consider taking India to ICJ over Modi’s break-up confession

“There are legal issues involved in taking up the matter with the ICJ. We have not examined it so far. But if the house desires so, we can consider it,” Mr Aziz said while winding up his speech in the Senate on a motion moved by PPP’s former interior minister Rehman Malik to discuss the Indian prime minister’s confession.

The demand for taking up the matter to the ICJ was initially made by Mr Malik in his opening speech and it was later endorsed by Nehal Hashmi of the ruling PML-N and some senators belonging to other parties.

While receiving the ‘liberation war honour’ on behalf of former prime minister Atal Behari Vajpayee during his visit to Bangladesh in June this year, Mr Modi had said he was one of the activists who reached Delhi in response to Mr Vajpayee’s call for “Satyagraha for the liberation of Bangladesh in 1971” and that like millions of other Indians he wanted this vision realised.

Mr Aziz said the Indian prime minister had made the statement on June 7 and the Foreign Office had forcefully responded to it on June 9. Moreover, he said, the National Assembly had adopted a strongly worded resolution on June 11.

“Such statements confirm Pakistan’s belief about past and present Indian involvement in destabilising Pakistan,” Mr Aziz said, reading out the text of the resolution.

He said the government had already taken up the issue of Indian interference in Pakistan at various international forums. Pakistan recently handed over three dossiers to the US officials and the United Nations containing proofs of involvement of Indian intelligence agency RAW in Balochistan.

Mr Aziz said the world was taking notice of the discrimination being meted out to the minorities in India, which claimed to be a secular state. He said the government would continue to expose Indian hostility at every diplomatic forum, adding that Pakistani forces were fully capable of defending the motherland in any eventuality.

Initiating the debate, Rehman Malik called Narendera Modi “the chief terrorist of Asia” and alleged that his Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP) had links with extremist organisation RSS (Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh).

He called upon the United Nations to take notice of Mr Modi’s confessional statement because the Indian prime minister admitted that his country had violated the UN charter and a number of other resolutions. “This is a fit case to be taken to the ICJ as the UN charter calls for non-interference” in the affairs of member states.

PML-Q’s Mushahid Hussain said Mr Modi’s statement had provided an opportunity to the government to expose Indian designs at international forums.

PML-N’s Mushahidullah Khan said that on one hand the Indian prime minister was boldly making admission of violating the UN charter and, on the other, it wanted to become a permanent member of the UN Security Council.

PTI’s Nauman Wazir said: “If India has Modi, it doesn’t need enemies.”

Nasreen Jalil of the MQM said the people of Bihar in the recent elections had rejected BJP’s policies.

Journalist pardoned

The Senate chairman disposed of the issue of the breach of privilege of parliament by senior journalist Salim Bokhari after the latter tendered an “unconditional apology” through a letter to Mr Rabbani.

Severely criticising the use of “filthy and abusive language” against lawmakers by Mr Bokhari during a TV talk show, the Senate chairman in his ruling last week had directed his secretariat to ask Pemra to take action against the ‘said person’.

ANP Senator Shahi Syed, who had raised the issue, and Leader of the House Raja Zafarul Haq requested the chairman to accept the apology and close the matter.

APP adds: The Senate unanimously passed a resolution to pay tribute to Allama Mohammad Iqbal. The resolution was moved by the Leader of House Raja Zafarul Haq in connection with the Iqbal Day. He said that legacy of Allama Iqbal was not confined to Pakistan only but had universal appeal for Ummah and the suffering humanity.

Published in Dawn, November 10th, 2015