Privilege issues: Senate panel to discuss Rangers’ raid on seminary

Also take up matters relating to Asif, railways secretary

ISLAMABAD: A panel of the upper house of parliament will take up three privilege issues during its meeting on Monday (today), including the paramilitary Rangers’ raid on a religious seminary in Karachi last year.

The motion against the Sindh Rangers was moved by Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) Senator Maulana Tanveerul Haq Thanvi on January 14.



Thanvi said he was on a Haj trip when the paramilitary force raided his seminary. He claimed that around 250 soldiers entered the seminary and the surrounding residential blocks, and misbehaved with his family.

“They came without any prior notice,” he told The Express Tribune. “This is not the way to handle things. I want to set some precedent while taking this issue to parliament.”

He said his institution was well-known. “They only targeted me because of my affiliation with the MQM. It is not a crime to be affiliated with MQM chief Altaf Hussain.”

Senate Standing Committee on Rules of Procedure and Privileges, headed by Dr Jehanzeb Jamaldini, would also discuss breach of privilege by the state-run television channel for live broadcasting of Defence Minister Khawaja Asif’s statement made in the Senate on December 31 without the permission of the Senate chairman or intimation to the Senate Secretariat.

In a rare ruling recently, Senate Chairman Raza Rabbani had barred Asif from attending upper house sessions because of absenteeism.

“I cannot allow this house to become hostage to one person,” the chairman had said while issuing the ruling. Asif has become the first minister to be banned from the Senate over his absence.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 25^th,  2016.