ISLAMABAD: The Sen­ate Secretariat has returned the opposition’s requisition notice while raising objection to the inclusion of a pri­vilege motion of Deputy Cha­irman Saleem Mandvi­walla against officials of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) and two resolutions against the bureau in the agenda, Dawn learnt here on Saturday.

Through the letter, written by a section officer of the Senate Secretariat to Opp­osition Leader in the Sen­ate Raja Zafarul Haq, the opposition members have been directed to revise the agenda and submit it again for consideration by Senate Chairman Sadiq Sanjrani.

The opposition parties on Dec 16 had submitted a requisition notice to the Senate Secretariat seeking a session of the upper house of parliament to take up a number of crucial political matters, including the privilege motion of Mr Mandviwalla against NAB officials for allegedly carrying out his character assassination by initiating an inquiry against him in a benami transaction case and the government’s “crackdown” on the opposition workers during the Pakistan Democratic Movement’s (PDM) public meetings in various cities of the country.

The agenda also included a resolution against alleged human rights violations being committed by NAB.

Through another resolution it seeks “verification of degrees, domicile certificates and asset declaration of NAB authorities/officials”.

According to the five-point agenda attached to the requisition notice, the opposition parties also wanted to have a debate on “the massive scale of pre-poll, polling day rigging and result-tampering fraud in the recent exercise called the Gilgit-Baltistan (GB) elections”.

The requisition notice had been moved under Article 54(3), read with Article 61 of the Constitution, under which the Senate chairman was bound to convene the sitting within 14 days of the receipt of the notice, i.e. by Dec 30.

Interestingly, the letter from the Senate Secretariat is being interpreted differently by the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N).

Talking to Dawn, Senate Deputy Chairman Saleem Mandviwalla declared that the requisition notice which the opposition had submitted on Dec 16 was still valid since it had not been rejected by the secretariat. Instead, he said, the opposition had been asked to revise the agenda. He said they were contesting the viewpoint of the Senate chairman and would press him to summon the session by Dec 30 in line with their requisition notice under the rules.

Fresh notice

On the other hand, when contacted, Opposition Leader and PML-N Senator Raja Zafarul Haq said they were considering revising the agenda and resubmiting their notice next week. He was of the view that if they submitted a fresh notice on Monday (tomorrow) or Tuesday then still it was not too late.

Mr Haq made it clear that the opposition would definitely include a discussion on the performance of NAB in the agenda for the requisitioned session. During the proceedings, he said, Mr Mandviwalla could move his privilege motion.

“The parliament has the right to question all institutions and ask for transparency in their actions,” the opposition members had stated in their requisition notice.

The move to requisition the Senate session had been initiated by Mr Mandviwalla who recently through news conferences accused NAB of committing serious human rights violations and vowed to get it included among the internationally blacklisted organisations.

Mr Mandviwalla alleged that a number of people had either died in NAB custody or committed suicide after receiving notices from the accountability watchdog and announced that the Senate would now hold NAB itself accountable for the first time in the country’s history.

On the other hand, NAB through a rejoinder claimed that no accused had ever died in its custody and that the anti-graft watchdog would initiate action against those levelling allegations against it without evidence.

“In the agenda of the said requisition, item number 1 is about discussing and admitting the privilege motion moved by (the) deputy chairman Senate against NAB authorities, item numbers 2 and 3 are about discussion and adoption of two resolutions against NAB,” reads the letter of the Senate Secretariat sent to Mr Haq, a copy of which is available with Dawn.

“It is stated that admitting a privilege motion and adoption of a resolution during a requisitioned session is not covered in the constitution, the Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in the Senate 2012 or the standing orders,” it says, adding that “a ruling of the chair dated 10th February 2016, which addressed the questions of ‘Treatment of Business During a Requisitioned Session’ and also provided basis for Chapter 1 of the standing orders with the same title and subject, explicitly provides that the mode of taking up the issues/matters in the requisition shall be through a motion under Rule 218.”

The above-mentioned ruling had been given by the then Senate chairman and now PPP senator Raza Rabbani and interestingly he is also among those opposition members who had signed the requisition notice.

The Senate Secretariat letter further says that “the object of a requisition meeting is that if there is an important issue before the country or a formal respectable and sizeable section of the people feel (the need for it) then there must be a session in which these points can be aired.”

“Therefore, it is requested that revised agenda for the requisitioned session may kindly be provided in the light of the above. Further action will be taken on receipt of your reply,” the letter concludes.

Published in Dawn, December 20th, 2020