Chaudhry Nisar. PHOTO: FILE
ISLAMBAD:
Opposition members in the upper house of parliament endorsed Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan’s fiery response to the remarks of a UAE cabinet minister regarding Pakistan’s stance on the ongoing Yemen crisis.
Nisar’s visit happily surprised everyone on the inaugural session of the Senate on Monday after a considerable break of over a year. Senate Chairman Raza Rabbani, who never hesitated to criticise him, was the first person to welcome him at a time when the house was in the middle of a discussion over the state of the country’s education.
The interior minister has stayed out of the Senate proceedings over a row with the opposition months after the PML-N came to power. And in November 2013, the opposition held an informal session of parliament outside the Parliament House.
Opposition leaders, including Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), termed Chaudhry Nisar’s response to the UAE over parliament’s resolution on Yemen, as befitting.
Later, during the prayer break, senators including JI chief Sirajul Haq, PML-Q’s Mushahid Hussain Syed, ANP’s Ilyas Bilour and others appreciated Nisar for his statement in response to the UAE minister.
On Sunday, the interior minister in a brief statement said, “It is tragic and matter of concern that the UAE minister is threatening Pakistan. The Pakistani nation is an honourable nation. It has brotherly relations with the people of Saudi Arabia as well as the UAE. However, the statement of the UAE minister is an insult to the self-respect of Pakistan and its nation and is unacceptable.”
Earlier, during a debate in connection with the Constitution Day celebrations, both the members from treasury and opposition benches were of considered opinion that the Constitution was not implanted in letter and spirit due to which the country was facing multifaceted issues.
“Ours is the Constitution which has been murdered several times because provisions aimed at its safeguarding were never implemented,” said Sirajul Haq.
He also urged the chairman to take an initiative to look into which provisions/clauses of the Constitution had never been implemented.
Maulana Attaur Rehman of JUI-F, Saeed Ghani of PPP, Dr Jahanzeb Jamaldini and leader of the house Raja Zafarul Haq also lamented that the Constitution was not implemented in letter and spirit.
It was a rare sitting of the upper house which started at a given time and took up the entire agenda set for the day. This change has come after Rabbani took over as chairman.
Meanwhile, the house also discussed the state of country’s education which according to members was ‘in shambles’. They mentioned ghost schools, critically analysed dedication of teachers and then suggested for introduction of uniform curriculum and to increase budgetary allocation.
PPP Senator Farhatullah Babar said education, as per Article 25A of the Constitution, is a fundamental right but criticised by saying, “Some 25 million children were out of school.” He also suggested that there should be a subject over sanctity of the Constitution in the syllabus.
MQM Senator Col (retd) Tahir Mushahidi pointed out budgetary allocation on the education sector, saying despite commitment with the UN (Millennium Development Goals) was spending only 1.2% of its GDP on education.
A large number of senators on both sides of the aisle said education was neglected but State Minister for Education Baleeghur Rehman enumerated the steps his government has taken after coming to power.
He clarified that Pakistan was spending 2% of its GDP on education and the number of children out of school was 16 million. In addition, he said the literacy rate of the country has reached 60% for the first time while there were more than 10,000 PhDs in the country.
Published in The Express Tribune, April 14th, 2015.
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