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Senators flay ‘unbecoming’ treatment of tribal people* ANP’s Khattak regrets tribal people deprived of fundamental human rights * Asks president to take notice of poor law and order situation in FATA
ISLAMABAD: The Senate was informed on Friday that the tribal people are living in miserable conditions and are being treated as fourth-class citizens.
Taking part in a debate on the law and order situation in FATA, ANP’s Senator Afrasiab Khattak regretted that the fundamental human rights are not available to the people of FATA. He said there was no parliament there nor can the FATA parliamentarian legislate for their respective areas. The senator said that during the last few days, armed forces’ personnel and several innocent people have been killed in the region but they were not in a position to provide medical facilities to them due to continuous curfew there.
Khattak said that being the chief executive, the president must take appropriate steps to improve the situation there. He said FATA required long-term reforms. He alleged that some local agencies were involved in unrest in Balochistan, while some foreign agencies started their activities there later. Khattak demanded that missing persons’ cases should be stopped, and the vicious cycle of violence in Balochistan should be broken once and for all.
About the violence in Rawalpindi on Muharram 10, he said such type of incidents should not be allowed to recur and there should be zero tolerance against terrorists and militants. Mian Raza Rabbani added that according to the constitution, the president could take notice of the law and order situation in FATA. Leader of the House, Raja Zafarul Haq said that reforms should be introduced in FATA to maintain law and order there. Taking part in the discussion in Senate on current political situation in the country, he said that the issue of FATA was discussed many times but steps had not been taken by the former governments which, he added, was regretful.
He said that the leadership of PML-N was well-aware of the FATA situation and necessary steps would be taken in this regard. “I will personally meet president of Pakistan and apprise him of the Senate’s sentiments,” Haq added. Maula Bakhsh Chandio stressed stability and continuity of democracy to resolve all the issues facing the country. “All the politicians are well-aware of the importance of democracy after facing dictatorial tenures,” he added.
He said that workers of all the political parties, including PML-N and Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), had faced imprisonment and torture during different dictatorial regimes, adding that now all should support democracy for the betterment of the country. He assured the government of support for strengthening democracy. He also claimed that the incumbent government had totally failed to honour its election promises. Chandio said some ministers need to be more tolerant and listen to the opposition’s criticism.
Earlier, Federal Minister for Railways Khawaja Saad Rafique informed the Senate in the question-hour that his ministry would remove all encroachments from railways land across the country. Replying to a question of Senator Abdul Rauf, the minister said that 1,007,203 acres of railways land has been leased out to the provincial capitals in the past, but no land has been leased during the six months of the present government. Rafique said that land is leased out for the purpose of commercial, agriculture, material-stacking and parking. The annul income form the said land is Rs 1.858 billion, he said.
The minister said that there are 2,442 railway crossing across the country and added that it is the responsibility of the provincial governments to build railway crossings. He said the government is taking action against the illegal occupation of railways land.
Courtesy www.dailytimes.com.pk