- Dasti falls short of evidence on lawmakers’ involvement in illegal activities at Parliament Lodges
- Probe committee to possibly recommend penalty for Dasti for his ‘false claims’
Jamshed Dasti, the whistle-blower who had pointed fingers at some of his fellow lawmakers for their alleged involvement in obnoxious activities in the Parliament Lodges, stands hopeless as his fellows members of the committee formed to probe the allegations, are all set to recommend penalty against him, terming his evidence as “insufficient”, Pakistan Today has learnt.
The committee met Tuesday with PML-N lawmaker Sheikh Rohail Asghar in the chair. According to sources privy to the proceedings of the committee, not a single legislator appeared before the committee to record a statement approving allegations leveled by Dasti.
“The committee was informed by an official that there were some non-Muslim workers living in the Parliament Lodges and they might be consuming liquor,” sources said adding that the Christians under the law were allowed to consume liquor – suggesting that the committee and officials were set to hush up the probe.
Though there was no official word about the meeting, a member of the committee told Pakistan Today that the evidence put forth by Dasti was insufficient and held no grounds while the investigation into the matter also did not approve the allegations leveled by Dasti.
“However, there are some loopholes identified by the committee in the security and surveillance system of Parliament Lodges and we will finalise our proposals to fix the same in future deliberations,” the member said requesting not being named.
The lawmaker said that the committee agreed in principle that it would provide another chance to Dasti to submit concrete and solid evidence to prove his allegations, failing which the committee would recommend the National Assembly to move against the accuser under the law.
“Since the learned lawmaker has leveled serious allegations against fellow members of the Parliament, he would have to prove his claim. Since our families live there in Parliament Lodges, the vicinity is just like our own home. We can’t allow anyone to accuse our home for media projection. Either Dasti would have to prove his claims or he would have to face the music,” the lawmaker added.
Another member of the committee however asserted that no such decision had been taken as the investigations were still in process.
“This is a mere investigation going on. Today, we summoned Parliament Lodges director again and grilled him. We have not even started finalising our report. So the TV channels are reporting lies in this regard,” he maintained.
Despite repeated attempts, Dasti was not available for comments.
Non muslim worker are issued liquor permits. Their purchases are recorded. If the empty liquor bottles found at the parliament lodges match what might have been purchased by the non muslims then there could be an inference drawn that these bottles may belong to them. If they don't match what was purchased by them, then it is obvious that somebody else bought and consumed this alcohol at the parliament residences. Also, the price of the liquor must reflect the purchase capacity of these "workers". If their income does not justify buying expensive liquor then somebody else used their permits for these purchases. And if the parliamentarians don't understand this then shame on Pakistani nation for electing such stupid people to represent them.
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