Opp files privilege over Imran meeting denial

Motion demands action against top security bosses

ISLAMABAD:

The opposition in the National Assembly has submitted a privilege motion to the Speaker following the denial of lawmakers’ meeting with former prime minister Imran Khan at Adiala Jail and their purported maltreatment.

They demanded that top police and security officials be summoned before the privileges committee and that disciplinary action be taken against them for breaching the MNAs’ privilege.

In the motion submitted by Leader of the Opposition Omar Ayub Khan to Speaker Sardar Ayaz Sadiq on Thursday, he narrated the ordeal suffered by the PTI parliamentarians, including himself, Leader of the Opposition in the Senate Shibli Faraz, MNA Junaid Akbar Khan, MNA Shandana Gulazar Khan, MNA Shehryar Khan Afridi and Firdous Shamim Naqvi when they went to meet the party’s founder on July 4.

The opposition leader mentioned in the motion that they were standing in the shade under a tree in the courtyard of Adiala kiosk when an ASI approached them and asked them to leave the premises. Upon inquiring the reason, he informed that the check post’s in-charge inspector Awais and inspector Javed had sent him to convey the instructions, which came from ‘other people’.

They waited at the gate of Adiala jail and inquired from the jail officials about their scheduled meeting but they kept on giving evasive replies. Eventually they left without meeting Imran Khan, stated the motion.

“Our privilege as parliamentarians has been breached time and again. I want to point out that these privilege breaches have happened on the instructions” given by the ISI official, the home secretary Punjab, IG Jails Punjab, IG Punjab, DIG Operations Punjab, jail superintendent Adiala Jail, DSP, SHO and inspectors, said Omar Ayub.

“We as members of the National Assembly demand that the above-mentioned public servants be summoned before the privileges committee and asked as to why the privilege of the MNAs was breached and that strict disciplinary action should be taken against them as per the rules and law,” read the motion.