Senate defers resolution honouring Sharmeen

ISLAMABAD: The upper house of parliament deferred on Tuesday a resolution honouring filmmaker Sharmeen Obaid Chinoy for her second Oscar after the chair proposed the house also offer gratitude to all unsung women’s rights activists.

MQM Senator Nasreen Jalil was about to move a resolution in the Senate hailing Sharmeen’s Oscar but Chairman Raza Rabbani sought recognition for “other women [rights] activists who are struggling on the roads and even practically face baton charge [at times]”.



He asked whether winning an Oscar was worth “expression of the house [resolution],” which he argued would ‘reflect the will of the house’ and was something quite significant.

“Do you really want a resolution … I don’t know,” Rabbani asked the leader of the house, Raja Zafarul Haq, when he sought permission to move the resolution on behalf of all the senators.

After leader of the opposition Aitzaz Ahsan threw his support behind the resolution, Rabbani asked the lawmakers to return today [Wednesday] with an amended resolution which should also mention names of other women’s rights activists.

Sharmeen on Monday won an Academy Award for her documentary ‘A Girl in the River’ which focussed on the tale of 18-year-old Saba who survived an honour killing attempt. The Sindh Assembly passed a resolution paying tribute to her and calling for legislation against honour killings.

PPP’s Farhatullah Babar took the opportunity to press the government to honour its commitment to the filmmaker by passing an anti-honour killing bill which had been pending approval in the National Assembly.



On this, Rabbani said he had already sent a request to hold a joint sitting of both the houses of parliament to pass the honour killing bill along with seven others. “Please request the president not to forget those eight bills whenever a joint session is summoned,” he said.

Meanwhile, the Senate admitted an adjournment motion brought by JUI-F’s Hafiz Hamidullah to debate US Secretary of State John Kerry’s threat that Pakistan of dire consequences if nuclear weapons were sold to Saudi Arabia.

Hamidullah also tried to object to Commerce Minister Khurram Dastgir’s use of English language arguing that it violated the Supreme Court’s verdict. “Don’t discuss the SC decision,” Rabbani interjected as he cautioned the senator to restrict arguments to the extent of his motion.

Dastgir, though, opposed the motion claiming that the newspaper had misquoted him as he read out a transcript.

Senate advised not to pass PIA bill

The Senate Standing Committee on Cabinet Secretariat recommended that the Senate not pass the Pakistan International Airlines Corporation (Conversion) Bill, 2016. The committee chairman, Senator Talha Mehmood, presented the panel’s report before the house on Tuesday. The report recommended that the bill, which has already been passed by the National Assembly, “may not be passed”.



“The concerned department briefed the committee but could not satisfy the members on various questions and issues regarding the contents of the bill,” the report said, adding that the panel’s members were of the unanimous view that all the stakeholders should be consulted especially the Unions of PIA employees amid consultations with the Senate Special Committee on Performance of PIA, Privatization Commission, the SECP and aviation industry experts.

 

Published in The Express Tribune, March 2^nd, 2016.