Senate resolves to arrest Musharraf on arrival

The Senate frustrated former president General (r) Pervez Musharraf’s dream to return home as the government-dominated Upper House of parliament on Monday unanimously passed a resolution asking the government to arrest General Musharraf immediately upon arrival in Pakistan and the federal government institute a case against him under Article 6 of the constitution for twice holding the constitution in abeyance and bringing disrepute to the judiciary.
The resolution moved by Senator Raza Rabbani said Musharraf removed, ridiculed and arrested judges of the supreme judiciary. He aided, abetted and was an accomplice in the murders of Benazir Bhutto and Akbar Bugti, the resolution said. It said Musharraf committed numerous crimes. His policies and use of state force in Balochistan led to the loss of innocent lives and further sponsored disappearances of its citizens, the resolution said, adding that he also compromised vital national security interests through clandestine deals and unwritten agreements with foreign governments.
Urdu: Earlier, the senators discussed a resolution, which suggested the government take immediate steps to declare Urdu the official language of the country in pursuance of Article 251 (1) of the constitution. Professor Khurshid Ahmad moved the resolution in the House. Though the resolution asked the government to take immediate steps to declare Urdu as the official language of the country but most of the senators, including Naeem Hussain Chattha, Prof Ibrahim Khan, Khalid Soomro, Dr Abdul Malik, Abdur Rahim Mandokhel and Hasil Bazenjo were more concerned about the regional and mother tongues. They lacked clarity of views as they built up their arguments, simultaneously supporting the regional languages to be declared as official languages and also advocating for Urdu to be used as a medium of interaction at the national level. Soomro was of the view that mother tongues should be declared national languages. Dr Malik said Urdu, as a language, was not facing any existential threat, pleading at the same time that English was “required by the people of the country”.
Mandokhel said the medium of instruction should be the mother tongue but at the same time said Urdu should be the official language. However, Senator SM Zafar asked the senators to approach the respective provincial assemblies if they wanted promotion of regional languages as has been prescribed in the constitution. He said the senators could not apprehend the resolution properly and told his colleagues that it only demanded the government take immediate steps to declare Urdu the official language of the country and nothing more. He said there was no bar on the provincial governments in promoting regional languages. Senator Abdul Khaliq Pirzada and Sajid Hussain Zaidi also endorsed the view point of Zafar. Pirzada said Urdu came into being after “conquering” over 450 other languages. He said, “Urdu is the daughter of Arabic” and asked his colleagues to raise their voice in the provinces if they wanted promotion of regional and other languages. Senator Hasil Bazenjo said he did not oppose the resolution, adding that Urdu was made controversial by Urdu-speakers who migrated from India. On the other hand, he said, Bengalis had also declined to speak Urdu. Later, the resolution was deferred as the mover wanted some amendments in it. In a late night development, Senator Tahir Mashhiadi said the MQM had not signed the resolution regarding Musharraf’s arrest, adding that the party would present its stance separately.