NA panel summons Punjab officials over PTI leaders' arrest

Members of the National Assembly Standing Committee on Human Rights on Wednesday summoned top officials of the Punjab police and the prisons department over the arrest of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leaders outside the Adiala jail recently.

Chairing a meeting, committee head Sahibzada Hamid Raza shared that he, along with National Assembly Opposition leader Omar Ayub and former speaker Asad Qaiser, were arrested outside Adiala Jail while attempting to meet PTI founder Imran Khan.

"I have patience and tolerance, but we were disrespected, which cannot be tolerated under any circumstances. We were held in custody for one and a half hours at the Adiala jail post. Is this the treatment given to members of parliament," Raza said.

Committee member Zartaj Gul of the PTI called for a visit to the Adiala Jail to review the conditions of the prisoners there. She said that officials of local and international human rights organisations as well as media representatives should be invited to join the committee during the visit.

"If we cannot deliver justice to ourselves, how can we deliver it to the people? The footage of parliamentarians [in custody] is sad for us. The officers involved in this matter should be called here, as they are accountable to us," she added.

Another committee member, Sehar Kamran of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), said that the country's political history had been filled with bitterness. "What happened there is condemnable," she said, adding that she also condemned the political vendetta against the PPP leadership in the past.

After a thorough discussion, the committee summoned the Punjab Home Secretary, the Inspector General of Punjab Prisons, and senior Punjab police officers to the next meeting to provide their viewpoint on the matter.

Meanwhile, the committee took up a bill against child marriage. Ali Muhammad Khan of PTI pointed out the observation of the Council of Islamic Ideology (CII) on the issue. However, mover of the bill, Sharmila Farooqi of the PPP told the committee that CII observation was made in 2014.

The committee called the officials of the health, education, religious affairs, parliamentary affairs ministries and the CII in the next meeting for further consultation on the bill.