Mice infestation in Parliament Lodges irks lawmakers

NA panel asks top civic authority to address issue

ISLAMABAD: A panel of the National Assembly (NA) on Thursday expressed displeasure over the Capital Development Authority (CDA) for not taking substantial measures against the mice-outbreak at the parliament lodges there. The NA body called for a permanent solution to the problem.

The NA Standing Committee on Rules of Procedure and Privileges meeting was held at the Parliament House under the chairmanship of Rana Muhammad Qasim Noon.

The members were irked on the surfacing of news published in a newspaper that families of lawmakers also enjoyed perks on the taxpayers’ money. In response to this, the committee summoned the traveling record of the parliamentarians for the past decade from Pakistan International Airlines (PIA).

Regarding the issue of mice presence in the capital, MNA Mohsin Shahnawaz Ranjha said that there should be a permanent treatment for the mice that roam everywhere in the lodges. Another member, MNA Ghulam Bibi Bharwana, pointed out the abysmal condition and use of substandard construction material in the lodges and said that the roofs kept dripping every other day. She feared that they might get collapsed one day. MNA Muhammad Junaid Anwar Chaudhry identified that the CDA has not winded up the repair work even though six months have passed.

Misuse of funds

The chairman got disgruntled on news published against the parliamentarians that their families also benefitted from the taxpayers’ money. He termed the news tantamount to deteriorating parliament’s dignity.

The members took strong exception that no additional money, other than their allocated allowances, was being extracted from the exchequer by them or by their family members. The committee summoned details of the 10-year-old travel record of the lawmakers from PIA.

VIP security

The committee also reviewed the matter pertaining provision of security to the parliamentarians. The Punjab home department officials said that they were obliged to implement the standard operating procedures (SOPs) pertaining provision of security to the VIPs. If a VIP feels life threat and demands security, the matter is referred and deliberated by the intelligence committee.

The officials further recalled the Supreme Court (SC) orders in which the apex court had barred from providing security unnecessarily. Ranjha, who won the 2018 general elections on Pakistan Muslim League- Nawaz (PML-N) ticket, said that the security was taken back from his party official, Rana Sanaullah, despite the fact that he faced serious threats to his life. Contending that he must be given security, he recalled that Shuja Khanzada, the former Punjab home minister, had to embrace martyrdom because he refused to take security.

The chairman committee endorsed the argument by saying that an MPA of Sindh Assembly was killed recently as she was not under protection. The committee member Ghulam Muhammad lamented that security has become an issue in the country. The police don’t provide security on an individual basis, he said.

Further, the Sindh home department officials explained the policy followed for providing security to the VIPs. They said the department executed the recommendations forwarded by the provincial and divisional threats committees.

Ranjha responded that even the officials who had been retired years earlier were enjoying protocol in the name of a security threat but the incumbent lawmakers were being denied of it.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 6^th, 2020.