Parliamentary panel to decide about 'stateless' citizens

PPP women lawmakers slam Imran's off-the-cuff remark on Afghans, Bengalis

ISLAMABAD: The government has announced a parliamentary committee having representation from all parties will chalk out a strategy to decide the fate of the Afghans, Biharis and Bengalis residing in Pakistan.

The Minister for Human Rights Shireen Mazari told the National Assembly on Tuesday on a calling attention notice from members of the Pakistan Peoples Party who criticised the announcement of Prime Minister Imran Khan earlier this month about the citizenship of Afghans and Bengalis born in Pakistan.

"No decision has been taken by the government as yet and any such thing will be decided after taking lawmakers from all the parties into confidence," she said.

Mazari, who was famous in the previous assembly for being too blunt and straight-forward for her remarks, took strong exception to the comments of Pakistan Peoples Party's Nafisa Shah. Shah termed the prime minister's announcement a 'U-turn and disappointing'.



Mazari said there were legal, political and other issues involved in the matter of their citizenship and a parliamentary committee would be formed to devise a final plan of action. She said they needed to sort out the Citizenship Act and some of its articles.

"The act has some lacunas as it doesn't include the children of refugees," the minister said, adding despite the country not being a signatory to the 1951 Refugees Convention it still can't banish the refugees from the country by force. "But we need to know that the issue cannot linger on for long," she remarked.

Meanwhile, Shah termed the PM's statement 'insensitive', saying the announcement seems to have been made without considering the sentiments of the people of Karachi.

Another PPP leader and former foreign minister Hina Rabbani Khar took on PM Imran, saying how he could give such a statement and that too without any context. "Has he forgotten that he is the Prime Minister of Pakistan and not someone in the opposition," she said, adding the state cannot take U-turns the way Imran did.

Mazari replied to Khar's comment by saying the statement was given purely on humanitarian grounds and "There was nothing irresponsible about it."

The human rights minister lambasted the PPP as Shah asked the government to provide complete data of all refugees residing in the country. "PPP never did anything for the stateless citizens and all of a sudden it's asking for data and details," said Mazari.

"I was shocked to know from the ministry that no such data existed and previous governments did not bother to even look into the issue," she added.

Later, Balochistan National Party's chief Akhtar Mengal, who met the PM on Monday, also urged the Speaker to hold a debate in the house as committees formed in the past had not resulted in anything.

"We should decide about it or let's announce this country a global orphanage," he said.

Mazari urged the lawmakers to come up with solution-oriented suggestions for the issue so that the government could chalk out a comprehensive strategy and find a way out.

Budget debate

Discussion on the mini-budget continued for the second day as lawmakers talked about different issues including CPEC, economy and austerity measures.



Minister for Information Fawad Chaudhry took on the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz and its previous tenure, terming it disastrous for the country while drawing parallels to the East India Company.

"Every government department has been destroyed," he remarked adding every government department you visit, there are PML-N appointees.

Responding to the opposition's criticism on running the country on 'donations', the information minister begged, "We have no other choice given the state previous governments have left the country in."

Chaudhry informed the House that the PML-N government ordered 33 bulletproof cars worth Rs980 million for an international summit which never took place but the high-ups kept using them and spent Rs330 million on the renovation of those cars.

Similarly, the PTI leader condemned the PML-N for helping former finance minister Ishaq Dar fly out of the country. "Dar is the biggest criminal of the country for leaving our economy in ruins," said Chaudhry adding that despite being a declared absconder, he has not returned to face the charges against him.

Meanwhile, PPP's Naveed Qamar criticised waiver for non-filers and said it meant the government had termed white and black money as same. He said the increase in taxes was leading to inflation and it was the worst form of taxation.

The debate on mini-budget will continue today (Wednesday).