• Gohar asks govt to apologise, announce compensation for victims of Nov 26 ‘massacre’
• Law minister lauds PTI for utilising parliamentary forum
• Members from both sides of aisle slam ministers’ absence during question hour
• Secretary discloses govt is working to amend PECA

ISLAMABAD: Adopt­ing a reconciliatory posture, PTI chairman Gohar Ali Khan on Wednesday highlighted the need to move forward by rectifying past mistakes, asking the government to at least apologise and announce compensation for party supporters allegedly killed during the Nov 26 protest at Islamabad’s D-Chowk.

“Even if bullets have been fired, there should at least be the courage to give answers, show remorse, apologise, investigate, and compensate the people,” said the PTI chairman while speaking on a point of order in the National Assembly, claiming that 12 PTI protesters were killed at “the doorstep of parliament” for which the nation demands accountability.

He said PTI founder Imran Khan had constituted a committee for holding dialogue but made it clear that their decision to form the committee should not be perceived as a sign of weakness. “We only want that a third force should not occupy this house,” he said, adding: “Do not consider it our weakness, take remedy for the mistakes.”

“Settle the dust of May 9 [incident] and move forward,” the PTI chairman remarked while speaking on the floor of parliament a day after Leader of the Opposition Omar Ayub Khan demanded a judicial probe into the Nov 26 “massacre” of PTI workers and blamed Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif for directly issuing “order to kill”.

Expressing PTI’s willingness for dialogue, Mr Khan warned the government not to force them to take to the streets again. He refuted the allegations levelled by the ministers that the PTI protesters were carrying arms.

He said the party was not using “Pakhtun card”, but it was a fact that they had carried bodies of their near and dear ones. “People remember the echo of a bullet for generations; they do not forget”, he said, adding: “If shots were fired, then responsibility must be assigned. We also demand that justice must be served and want to get it through this House.”

The PTI chairman said that NA human rights committee chairman Sahibzada Hamid Raza wanted to convene a meeting to take up the matter. “This is not the time for revenge, but you could have called for a case to be filed for investigation and brought it on record. These are your citizens and our citizens,” said Mr Khan while addressing Defence Minister Khawaja Asif.

Despite storming of parliaments in India, the US, Sri Lanka, South Korea and Bangladesh, no bullet was fired on the protesters, as protest was their democratic right, he said.

He said the government te­rmed the PTI workers and supporters ‘miscreants’, but they did not call the PML-N ‘Mur­derer League’. “It is PTI’s history that despite all the tyranny it has faced — our people were killed and injured — we did not abandon relationship based on mutual respect,” he added.

Govt response

Taking the floor, Law Minister Azam Nazeer Tarar said it was encouraging to see the opposition finally using parliament for discussing issues rather than confrontation. “This is the essence of democracy,” he noted.

The minister stressed the imp­ortance of engaging in constructive dialogue within parli­ament, adding that it was important to respect the platform of parliament for meaningful debate.

Earlier, both treasury and opposition members protested the absence of ministers during the question hour. They expressed their dissatisfaction over several replies given by parliamentary secretaries on behalf of the ministers.

Besides the opposition members, the most vocal and strong protest was lodged by the PPP members who termed it ‘an insult to parliament’.

It was after the members’ protest that Deputy Speaker Ghulam Mustafa Shah announced that they would write a letter to the prime minister to ask him to ensure the presence of ministers for parliamentary business.

Responding to the criticism, the law minister said the prime minister had already directed the cabinet members to take parliamentary business seriously.

Bill to tweak PECA

In response to a call attention notice, parliamentary secretary for cabinet secretariat Sajid Mehdi announced that the government was working on a bill to amend Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act (PECA) of 2016 to check “fake news” on social media.

He said the government wanted to strengthen defamation laws on the pattern of the UK where cases were decided quickly. He said presently the PTA had no mechanism to check fake news and it took action only after receiving complaints.

The National Assembly will meet again today at 11am.

Published in Dawn, December 12th, 2024