PTI to take up Leaks issue in parliament

Files adjournment motion seeking presentation of report in NA

ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf on Thursday submitted an adjournment motion in the National Assembly, seeking presentation of the Dawn Leaks report before parliament.

The party has decided to take up the matter in both the houses of parliament. The party’s senior leadership could not hold any consultative meeting over the matter on Thursday because Chairman Imran Khan was out of city.

A meeting in this regard is expected today [Friday] to chalk out the party’s future strategy over the matter after which Khan would depart for Sargodha where he would address a public rally.

Through the motion, submitted with the NA Secretariat by four PTI MNAs on behalf of their party, the PTI has sought suspension of the routine agenda of the lower house to discuss what they termed “an issue of critical national importance”.



“The so-called ‘settlement’ of the issue -- that was earlier deemed as a national security breach on record by the army and the interior ministry -- has raised more questions. We [PTI] demand the inquiry report to be laid before parliament,” the motion reads.

It says the report should be discussed thoroughly in parliament and the government should provide answers to some serious questions raised not only by the incident itself but also by the non-transparent manner in which the issue was claimed to have been ‘resolved’.

After the government and the army announced that the Dawn Leaks matter had been settled, the PTI had expressed strong reservations over it.

PTI chief Imran Khan had said it was not an issue between the government and the army but of national importance, claiming the people of Pakistan had been kept in the dark over the issue.



“Any issue of a breach of national security is an issue that impacts every citizen and the people's elected representatives have a right to know who was responsible for the breach and how it has been plugged,” the motion read.

PTI seeks information about PM’s secretary

Following recent allegations of corruption and misuse of authority by PM’s principal secretary Fawad Hassan Fawad made by Federal Minister for Inter-Provincial Coordination Riaz Hussain Pirzada and Nawaz Sharif’s son-in-law Captain (retd) Mohammad Safdar, the PTI has sought certified information from the PM office about these accusations.

Riaz Hussain Pirzada has recently requested the PM to relieve him from his current position due to ‘undue and unwarranted intervention of the secretary to PM in his ministry’.

Pirzada has also accused Fawad of being involved in corruption to the tune of billions of rupees, and promoting and demoting his ministry’s senior officers without informing him.



Similarly, in November 2016, while speaking on a calling attention notice, the PM’s son-in-law Capt Safdar also levelled similar accusations against Fawad on the floor of the house, saying “an individual [Fawad] is calling the shots and making promotions on the basis of his own desires”.

“We know most of the bureaucrats run their private offices in the evening and how they invest in the real estate sector,” Safdar had claimed while hinting at the misuse of power for financial gain.

Now the PTI leader Andleeb Abbas has asked the PM: why, despite the calling attention notice in the NA an enquiry against the misuse of public office by Fawad has not taken place?

In her letter, she alleged, “Fawad is an example of cronyism and nepotism and there are serious charges of corruption and misuse of public office on him.”



She wrote Riaz Hussain Pirzada had named Fawad for his involvement in billions of rupees corruption but the government did not refer any inquiry against him to the FIA or NAB.

She also questioned the PM’s decision where Fawad was promoted as secretary to the PM bypassing over 150 senior bureaucrats.

“The conduct of Fawad Hassan Fawad is a prime example of corruption, misuse of authority and contempt of court,” she said, asking the PM office to respond to her queries and provide her an answer within 21 days as specified in the Freedom of Information Ordinance-2002.