ISLAMABAD: Members of the National Assembly’s Standing Committee on Human Rights belonging to the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) on Saturday slammed the committee’s chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari over the delay in convening the requisitioned meeting and for unilaterally changing the agenda.

Lal Chand, who is among PTI MNAs who had submitted the requisition notice for convening the meeting on July 16, told Dawn that under the rules the chairman was bound to convene the committee meeting within 14 days i.e. by July 30, but regretted that the meeting had been convened on Aug 12.

Moreover, the PTI lawmaker said through the requisition notice, they had sought discussion on two issues, including the alleged failure of “the concerned departments and institutions” to provide justice to a girl, Umme Rabab, whose three family members had been brutally murdered about three years ago by some “feudal lords”, but the committee’s chairman did not make it part of the meeting agenda.

Mr Chand declared that they would bring Umme Rabab to the committee’s meeting despite the chairman’s act of excluding the issue from the agenda items.

Last year, Chief Justice of Pakistan Gulzar Ahmed had assured Umme Rabab of justice when she handed over the file of the murder case to him in Hyderabad where he had come to attend the annual dinner of the district bar association.

Initially, Ms Rabab was prevented by police from approaching the CJP, but eventually she was allowed to meet him.

Her father Mukhtiar Chandio, grandfather Karamullah Chandio and paternal uncle Kabil Chandio were shot dead on January 17, 2018, in Dadu district. Two PPP members of the Sindh Assembly were also nominated in the case.

When contacted, Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) information secretary Shazia Marri, who is also a member of the committee, admitted that the meeting had been convened on the requisition of the PTI and said under Rule 239, it was the prerogative of the committee’s chairman to set the agenda in consultation with the minister. She said Mr Bhutto-Zardari, who is also the PPP chairman, had used his “prerogative” under the rules and the PTI members should not have any objection.

She said the Umme Rabab case was a “sub judice matter” and it had been pending before courts for three years.

About the delay in the meeting, Ms Marri said, under the rules, if the chairman of a committee did not convene the requisitioned meeting within 14 days, the members could have asked the NA speaker to intervene but the PTI members preferred to do politics on the issue.

According to the agenda, the committee will discuss the reports on the murder of Noor Mukaddam in Islamabad and Bhong temple desecration.

The panel will also take up the Protection against Harassment of Women at the Workplace (Amendment) Bill, 2021.

Published in Dawn, August 8th, 2021