ISLAMABAD: Senate Standing Committee on Interior Chairman, Senator A Rehman Malik in a committee meeting on Monday took notice of the matter wherein NADRA instructed its staff in a written order to ‘send Pashto speaking towards the help desk for a proper interview’.
The meeting was held under the chairmanship of Senator A Rehman Malik here at the Parliament House and was attended by Senator Javed Abbasi, Senator Shahi Syed, Senator Dr Jehanzeb Jamaldini and Senator Seher Kamran, Interior secretary, Islamabad inspector general (IG), Islamabad security DIG and officials from the law ministry.
Senator Shahi Syed took up the issue of NADRA’s issuance of instructions to its staff in which they are directed to send Pashto speaking people towards the help desk for a proper interview before issuing a token.
Terming it highly condemnable and derogatory, the Senator Malik directed the interior secretary to investigate into the matter, reverse the instructions immediately and further directed NADRA’s chairman to appear before the committee and explain why such instructions were being passed in the first place.
He said that we all are equal, respectable citizens of the state of Pakistan and no discrimination based on language, colour, creed, cast or any other factor would be tolerated.
Senator Shahi Syed expressed grave concerns over the issuance of such instructions and said that the move has hurt the feelings of Pashtun people.
Senator Malik stated that applicant can be from any province so there is no logic in mentioning ‘Pashtuns” in particular.
The committee also considered and discussed different bills in detail, however, ‘The Criminal Laws (Amendment) Rights Protection of Transgender Persons Bill 2017’ moved by Senator Rubina Khalid was withdrawn by the mover and was disposed of.
The committee also considered ‘The Islamabad Capital Territory (Prohibition of Interest on Private Loans) Bill, 2017’ moved by Senator Sirajul Haq.
With the consent of the mover, the bill was referred to the Council of Islamic Ideology (CII); the Bill was deferred and forwarded for the next session considering its importance.
The Balochistan Frontier Corps (FC) submitted a detailed report on FC’s Gharang Check Post due to which long queues of vehicles are a daily routine problem causing great discomfort to the people of the area.
The issue was moved by Senator Maulana Hafiz Hamdullah and the committee was satisfied by FC’s briefing stating that the road was extended and the problem was minimized. The FC’s briefing also said that a hospital was established near the check post for facilitating passengers.
