Legislators are not safe even in the parliament precincts! A treasury member, Ijaz Virk, on Tuesday dropped a bombshell in the Lower House by claiming that two members of the National Assembly carried weapons with them while attending assembly sessions. Though Virk did not mention the names of the members he accused of carrying guns, he claimed that they were armed while sitting in the House. “They have been carrying arms with them for the last four years,” he said, sending a wave of terror across the House and everyone looked around to see who the “privileged members” were.
If the claims are true, the members have been dodging the Parliament House security personnel who understandably do not frisk the senators and the MNAs for fear of being fired for breaching parliamentarians so-called “privilege”. This raises a big question mark on the security inside the Parliament House. Speaking on a point of order, Virk said two parliamentarians had been managing to enter the House with pistols for the past four years. Responding to Virk’s claim, Interior Minister Rehman Malik ordered a probe into the allegation. Malik said police, Rangers and FC were responsible for external security of the Parliament House and every person was searched thoroughly before entering the area. Urging Virk to share details of his claim with the law enforcing authorities, the minister said assistance would be also taken from CCTV footage to probe whether or not any such incident took place.