NA agrees on making country arms-free

Amidst protest from the treasury benches, the National Assembly on Tuesday passed a resolution seeking deweaponisation of the entire country. The resolution was submitted by Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) parliamentary leader and Minister for Overseas Pakistanis Dr Farooq Sattar.
The move seemed to be a damage-control measure due to the sole reason – MQM senators had been caught napping on Monday as the ANP’s resolution for deweaponisation of Karachi had been passed by the Senate and only one senator of the MQM had opposed the resolution.
The treasury benches once again stood divided as the resolution was put for voting. The MQM lawmakers raised loud voice of ‘yes’ while the PPP and PML-N lawmakers did not respond.
However, the Awami National Party (ANP) and JUI-F lawmakers opposed the move.
With chairperson Yasmeen Rehman, who was presiding the session in absence of the NA speaker, and the deputy speaker gave verdict in favour of the MQM resolution, the ANP legislators opposed and asked for voting. However, Rehman rejected their request.
It was PPP’s Noor Alam Khan who strongly opposed the passage of the resolution and accused the chairperson of “bulldozing” the resolution. “I object to this passage of resolution … the resolution was bulldozed and it was not put for voting. Let me tell you that if operation could be conducted in Malakand, Khyber and other areas, it should be conducted in Karachi first. The PPP members were also not in favour of the resolution and you have done injustice by bulldozing it,” asserted Noor in an emotional tone.
He said the Pashtuns were peaceful people and tagging them terrorists was not justified by the MQM.
Noor said he wanted all Afghans, Bengalis and Arabs living illegally in Pakistan to be “thrown out of Pakistan”, as the Pashtun culture, civilisation had been destroyed due to terrorism. “Some people are taking advantage of the space given by the PPP … Pashtuns are neither fanatics nor terrorists,” he said and alleged that the Ministry of Interior had issued fake weapon licences and there was no record of most of the licences with the ministry. Earlier, Dr Farooq Sattar said all parties should forget their interests for the sake of Pakistan.
Tabling the resolution, Sattar said criminals and terrorists had disrupted peace in Pakistan, thus action must be taken to deweaponise the entire country.
JUI-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman, however, criticised the MQM’s “deceptive” resolution, saying law enforcement authorities had failed in providing security to the people and that the common man needed weapons to ensure his own safety. He said the country could not be deweaponised only with passing a resolution.
Rohail Asghar of the PML-N said only the departments concerned could seize illegal weapons and resolutions could not solve the problem.

He said the PPP and MQM tabled a resolution for deweaponisation, but did not mention how it could be done. Supporting the resolution, Bushra Gohar of the ANP said Karachi had become a dangerous city regarding accumulation of weapons, so Karachi should be the first to be deweaponised.
PPP Minister for Religious Affairs Khursheed Shah also spoke in favour of the resolution, urging deweaponisation of the entire country instead of just Karachi. Despite resistance from the ruling coalition members and the main opposition party, the National Assembly adopted the resolution calling for steps to deweaponise the country. The resolution said peace in the country was facing a threat from weapons and the government should take stern measures to deweaponise the country, it added.
Dr Farooq Sattar said everybody knew where the weapons were manufactured and that the disease should also be cured along with diagnosis.
He said when the whole country was deweaponised, both Karachi and Lahore would become weapon-free cities.
The House also adopted two separate resolutions denouncing the aggression by the Israeli government against the Palestinians.
The opposition’s resolution was moved by Zahid Hamid which was unanimously adopted by the House, while MQM’s SA Iqbal Qadri also presented a separate resolution which was also adopted unanimously.
Meanwhile, Minister for Religious Affairs Syed Khursheed Ahmed Shah assured members of the National Assembly that the government was investigating the alleged hurdles in the preparation of a local drug for Hepatitis, which was much more inexpensive in comparison to the costly imported drugs.
The minister made these remarks while responding to a calling attention notice raised by Dr Azra Fazal Pechuho, Dr Talat Mahesar, Shamshad Sattar Bachani, Nawab Abdul Ghani Talpur and Yasmin Rehman. Shah said it would be probed that if the local drug was approved by the concerned authorities, why its preparation was being blocked and by whom.
He said that the country was facing an alarming situation due to the rapid spread of hepatitis disease and the situation was so alarming that he could not even share the number of hepatitis patients with the House, as the number could spread panic among the people.
Dr Azra Fazal Pechuho said the local drug which could prepare an injection only in Rs 70 had been approved by the authorities, but some lobbies had blocked the preparation of the drug as the imported drugs were costing over Rs 3,500 per injection.
Dr Talat Mahesar said around 50 people were dying daily due of hepatitis across the country, while the local vaccine had not been approved by those concerned.