The senators on Monday condemned the raid on Senator Saifullah Niazi’s house, allegedly over running a website called ‘Na Manzoor’ – not acceptable – and confiscated his laptop, phone and other gadgets.
The Federal Investigation Agency and police officials raided Saifullah’s house on September 13.
In the Senate session, chaired by Senator Sadiq Sanjrani, the lawmakers questioned the conduct of the raid, saying that the FIA and police officials entered Saifullah’s bedroom and took away the mobile phone from his wife and harassed his girls.
“No lady police official was present when they entered the house and the bedroom,” Opposition Leader Shahzad Wasim said, while presenting the motion against the harassment of journalists.
He said that according to the rules, the Senate chairman should be informed about raiding the house of a member of the Senate.
“This is a free country and everyone has the right to express their opinion. Today, the age-old censorship of the media has been applied.
“When Imran Khan gives a speech, a message is sent to the channels not to air the speech,” Senator Wasim said, recalling that Shireen Mazari and Shahbaz Gill were tortured.
On the Prime Minister Office audio leak, Wasim said that in the audio, permission is being sought to bring back his son-in-law (Ishaq Dar), “Mr Chairman, listen to the audio and you will know”.
In another audio, he said, the “speaker's constitutional authority is being exercised by the Prime Minister House”.
Senator Raza Rabbani strongly condemned the incident that happened to Saifullah Niazi.
“Senator Saifullah is a member of the Senate and a citizen of Pakistan. He has basic rights.
“It is condemnable to enter the house without women. In the 70s, a security official entered Zulfikar Ali Bhutto's room when he was with his wife. The prime minister was judicially murdered.
“The prime minister-elect was handcuffed and locked in a plane … Benazir Bhutto was killed and the ground was washed.”
Senator Rabbani said, “This is a part of history. Tomorrow, when the opposition leader becomes the leader of the house, he will defend such a move.”
He admitted that even his strings were being pulled, saying that the Federation could no longer tolerate such experiments. “If we do not make immediate reforms, there is nothing but disaster. The only solution is to look at your fault lines. Nationalist movements, extremism, political division and economic division are rampant in Balochistan, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa.”
Rabbani said, “The executive should ask the military establishment to stay within their limits. No organisation will interfere with another organisation and will remain within the constitutional limits. The president cannot play a role in this discussion.”
The Senate should start a discussion and hold a meeting of the committee consisting of the entire house on “this important matter”.
Jamaat-e-Islami Senator Mushtaq Ahmad also condemned the raid on Senator Saifullah’s house, demanding that those involved in the raid should be brought to justice.
He said, “Hamid Mir was attacked. Was his attacker arrested? Who kept Ali Wazir in jail?
“If investigation into all these incidents had been completed properly, the Saifullah Niazi incident would not have happened.”
Senator Azam Nazir Tarar, who is also the law minister, responding to the motion of the opposition members, said that the government did not interfere in the Pakistan Electronic Regulatory Authority affairs, while Kamran Michael was arrested in a false case, but the chairman sent his production order.
In Feb 2019, the National Accountability Bureau arrested PML-N leader Michael, the former federal minister for ports and shipping, over allegations of misuse of authority and pocketing over Rs1 billion in bribes.
Tarar said former speaker Asad Qaiser did not even release the production orders of his party’s members, adding that the “media has been independent, will remain independent and should remain independent”.
The interior minister and the committee are investigating the raid at Saifullah’s house, after which the Senate meeting was adjourned till 4pm on Tuesday (today).
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