ISLAMABAD: The opposition parties submitted on Tuesday a privilege motion to the National Assembly Secretariat against Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan for “misrepresentation of facts” on the floor of parliament by stating that former president retired Gen Pervez Musharraf had been allowed to leave the country by superior courts.

The decision to move the privilege motion had been made by the opposition parties at a meeting presided over by Opposition Leader in the National Assembly Syed Khurshid Shah before the start of the joint session of two houses of parliament.

Sources said that in the meeting, Opposition Leader in the Senate and a PPP stalwart Chaudhry Aitzaz Ahsan briefed the participants about the legal aspects of the Supreme Court’s March 16 order, following which the federal government removed the name of the former military dictator from the exit control list (ECL).

Minister says PPP is trying to divert attention from its own dismal performance

PPP’s parliamentary leader in the Senate Saeed Ghani, during the fag end of the session, attempted to move the privilege motion and drew the attention of Speaker Ayaz Sadiq towards it. He was, however, not given the floor by the speaker who said he had not yet seen the motion.

Talking to Dawn, Mr Ghani said the privilege motion had been moved under Rule 33 of the Parliament (Joint Sittings) Rules 1973 and carried the signatures of over 40 members of almost all the opposition parties, including the PPP, Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf, PML-Q, Muttahida Qaumi Movement and Qaumi Watan Party. The motion has also been signed by both Khurshid Shah and Aitzaz Ahsan.

Quoting from the interior minister’s statement on the floor of the house on Monday, the opposition members have stated in the motion that the minister had said “that Gen Musharraf had been allowed by the superior courts to leave the country and that it was not a decision exclusively vested in the government of Pakistan.”

The motion states that “the fact is that the SC, in its March 16 order, while dismissing the appeal of the federation against the judgment of the Sindh High Court, invested the government with the full and unrestrained authority to decide the question of whether or not to allow retired Gen Pervez Musharraf to leave the country or to place any restriction on his movement”.

The motion mentions the relevant paragraph of the Supreme Court’s order and an observation of the chief justice, stating that “if the federation thinks that the respondent (Gen Musharraf) should not leave the country, then it should decide the matter independently” and that “the apex court had not restrained the federation from taking its own and independent decision regarding putting Musharraf’s name on the ECL.”

The motion further states that “by suppressing the above direction in the (court’s) order”, the interior minister has “attempted to mislead and misinform” the joint sitting of parliament. “Appropriate action as per rules and law of breach of privilege of both the houses is sought to be taken against him,” the motion pleads.

Under the rules, the speaker is empowered to declare the motion in order and refer it to the committee concerned or reject it.

Nisar responds: Hours after the privilege motion was submitted, the interior minister issued a harshly-worded response, accusing Senator Aitzaz Ahsan and the PPP of trying to divert attention from their own “dismal performance in parliament”.

While the statement did not directly refer to the motion, it did recall embarrassing moments from the PPP’s history in an effort to rub salt into their wounds.

“Where were Aitzaz and company when their leader was making a deal with Musharraf over the NRO? Where were they when the PPP joined hands with Musharraf after his anti-democratic actions of 2007,” the interior ministry’s statement quoted the minister as saying.

“The truth is that this self-proclaimed defender of law and champion of democracy is a hypocrite and the time has come for me to lay bare these hypocrisies before the nation. I am prepared to do so, whether it is before the assembly or the court,” the interior minister’s statement concluded.

Published in Dawn, March 23rd, 2016