Speaker’s revelation: MQM withdraws motion against Nine-Zero raid

Ayaz Sadiq says the party has made a request of dialogue instead of parliamentary debate

ISLAMABAD: Speaker National Assembly Sardar Ayaz Sadiq has revealed that the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) has withdrawn its motion against the Rangers’ operation at its headquarters Nine Zero in Karachi with a request of dialogue instead of parliamentary debate.

In an informal conversation with reporters in the press gallery of parliament on Wednesday, he said the MQM lawmakers told him that they were also not backing the terrorists and therefore wanted to resolve the prevailing controversy through a table talk instead of confrontation in parliament.

Earlier, Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan had pledged to take the house into confidence on the Rangers’ operation but after the MQM request he dropped his plan to initiate a debate on the issue. A majority of lawmakers did not turn up to attend Wednesday’s proceedings. The interior minister and his other senior colleagues also didn’t show up.

Interestingly, the NA Speaker preferred to interact with the media instead of chairing the house. In his absence, Pervez Malik chaired the lower house.

The Speaker said he has called on Chairman Senate Raza Rabbani in his chamber to felicitate him on his election. “We both will work together to strengthen democracy,” he added.

During the question hour session, the lawmakers were told that a total of 4.18 million subscriber identity modules (SIMs) have been blocked so far after the implementation of Biometric Re-Verification process. The minister In-Charge of the Cabinet Division told this to the National Assembly while replying to a written question.

The government has taken many steps to block the illegal SIMs. Commencing issuance of SIMs through online verification from the National Database Regulatory Authority (Nadra) in 2009 and carrying out offline verification of SIMs issued prior to that. Some 11.17 million unverified SIMs were blocked.

A total of 20.15 million SIMs issued prior to commencement of Biometric Verification System (BVS).

In reply to another question, Minister for Railways Khawaja Saad Rafique told the House that Pakistan Railways has fixed Rs35 billion as growth target for the next year 2015-16, adding that the railways has also set a goal of Rs40 billion and Rs45 billion of growth for the financial years 2016-17 and 2017-18 respectively.

He also said Pakistan Railways were taking many steps for improvement. The focus is on rehabilitation of track and capacity enhancement through dualisation of track and installation of modern signalling. In the first phase mainline track from Peshawar to Karachi has been prioritised under the Pakistan-China Economic Corridor, he added.

While responding to a call-attention notice, State Minister for Water and Power Abid Sher Ali said there was a need to forge consensus on construction of dams to increase water storage capacity in the country.

The minister said the government’s first priority is to construct Diamer-Basha Dam and billions of rupees have been released for the acquisition of land for it.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 19^th, 2015.