In Saudi custody: Transgender killing taken up in Senate

PPP senator urges authorities to raise the matter with the kingdom

ISLAMABAD: Senate Chairman Raza Rabbani on Thursday asked the government to explain reports of death of a Pakistani transgender person allegedly killed in police custody in Saudi Arabia early this month.

Raising it on a point of pubic importance in the upper house, PPP Senator Farhatullah Babar said the transgender belonged to Swat and his family was agitating against the death in custody in Saudi Arabia.

Babar said that reports had surfaced a few days back but he did not raise the matter and was waiting for more information.

The senator said that it was a serious matter involving the basic right to life of a Pakistani national and the least the government should do is to formally take it up with Saudi authorities and find out the facts.

“Not taking notice of the reports amounts to abdication of responsibility towards our nationals in foreign lands,” he said and called for referring the matter to the Human Rights Committee or Foreign Affairs Committee of the Senate.

He said that according to reports initially 35 Pakistani transgender had been arrested late last month out of which 29 had been released while the rest were still in jail.

“While one respects the sovereign right of a foreign government to uphold its laws it is also our responsibility to take up the matter with the Saudi government and ensure that a Pakistani was not deprived of life unlawfully and with impunity”.

Chairman Raza Rabbani directed that the verbatim record of the speech of the senator be sent to the Foreign Office with direction to clarify the issue in the house on Tuesday.



Pak-Afghan border closure

On another issue, Senator Babar questioned the continued closure of the Pak-Afghan border for the past several weeks and said that apart from being illogical it was now hurting the economic interests of traders and businessmen of K-P.

“It does not stand to reason that the borders have been closed because the militants were infiltrating through the Torkham border,” he lamented.

There are over 260 crossing points along the border, he said questioning why the militants would choose to enter through regular check posts.

“It is ironic that the border is sealed just when the prime minister is pleading connectivity and trade at the ECO summit in Islamabad,” he added

Hussain Haqqani

The Senate chairman accorded approval to an adjournment motion to discuss the article of former ambassador Hussain Haqqani published in the Washington Post.

The adjournment motion was moved by Lt Gen (r) Abdul Qayyum and Mohsin Aziz.

The members had urged the house to discuss Pakistan’s former ambassador to US Hussain Haqqani’s confession of facilitating CIA agents’ discrete induction into Pakistan with the approval of the leadership of the then government.

Right to Information Bill

Chairman Special Committee of the Senate on Right to Information (RTI) Senator Farhatullah Babar laid in the House the report along with the draft of RTI law which he said not only cut across the political divide but was also far-reaching in depth and breadth enabling citizens to access information not only about federal government departments but also about Parliament, courts, and NGOs that received any assistance from the government in any form.

“For the first time a provision has been incorporated to end the practice of seeking blanket immunity from disclosing information in the name of national security.

“Universally recognised Johannesburg principles that strike a balance between considerations of national security and public good have been relied upon in ending the practice of hushing up information behind the façade of national security,” he said.

He further said that under the law, reasons will have to be recorded in writing as to how considerations of security outweighed public good and even then it will be challengeable before the Information Commission.