ISLAMABAD: The call to begin addressing the issue of missing persons in earnest echoed once again in the senate on Friday as Senator Farhatullah Babar pointed out that one month had already passed to the report and the Senate on the subject prompting the Chairman Raza Rabbani to declare that he will again write to the government to respond to the Senate recommendation.
In December last the senate converting itself into a committee of the whole on speedy justice had asked the government to heed the 2013 report of the human right committee of the senate that had made several suggestions including a draft legislation to bring the state security agencies under the ambit of the law and had directed the government to respond within a month.,
Farhatullah Babar said that as a minimum the government should initiate a dialogue with the parliament so that the nation at least takes the first tentative step in the direction of addressing this grave issue of human rights violations.
Farhatullah Babar also drew attention towards reports that a disillusioned Daesh defector who had passed a stolen computer disc of documents identifying over twenty thousand operatives in over 50 countries to a UK journalist together with a treasure of rare information about the countries to which they belonged,their expertise in carrying out various militant operations and a list of people who had volunteered to act as suicide bombers to further its cause.
He called for examining the possibility of investigating this treasure house of information to find out Daesh supporters and operators in Pakistan if any.
During the question hour the government today also assured that the matter of setting up working women hostels for the federal government employees will not be taken to the Council of Islamic Ideology for views. Minister for parliamentary affairs Sheikh Aftab gave this assurance when senator Farhatullah Babar through a supplementary question asked whether the government intended to seek the advice of CCI expressing concern that recently the Council had opposed the setting up of old peoples homes in the country as against cultural norms.
It also transpired that the government had not yet decided to set up the Pakistan Airways as a parallel airline independent and separate from PIA although the new company had been registered with the SEC Plast month. The minister in charge for aviation division also stated in written reply there is no proposal to place the matter of introducing the new airline before the CCI. NNI