The upper house of parliament decided to honour filmmaker Sharmeen Obaid Chinoy for her second Oscar. The chair delayed the resolution and proposed to offer gratitude to other women’s rights activists.
Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) Senator, Nasreen Jalil was about to move a resolution in the Senate hailing Sharmeen’s Oscar, but Chairman Raza Rabbani, sought recognition for “other women [rights] activists who are struggling on the roads and even practically face baton charge [at times]”.
He said that it is a significant matter because the resolution would represent the expression of the house and asked if it had the worth to match the will of the house.
“Do you really want a resolution … I don’t know,” Rabbani asked the leader of the house, Raja Zafarul Haq when he sought permission to move the resolution on behalf of all the senators.
Sharmeen on Monday won an Academy Award for her documentary ‘A Girl in the River’, which focussed on the tale of 18-year-old Saba who survived an honour killing attempt. The Sindh Assembly passed a resolution paying tribute to her and calling for legislation against honour killings.
Read more: Sharmeen Obaid makes Pakistanis proud again, bags a second Oscar
PPP’s Farhatullah Babar took the opportunity to press the government to honour its commitment to the filmmaker by passing an anti-honour killing bill, which had been pending approval in the National Assembly.
On this, Rabbani said, he had already sent a request to hold a joint sitting of both the houses of parliament to pass the honour killing bill along with seven others. “Please request the president not to forget those eight bills, whenever a joint session is summoned,” he said.
Meanwhile, the Senate admitted an adjournment motion brought by JUI-F’s Hafiz Hamidullah to debate US Secretary of State John Kerry’s threat that Pakistan of dire consequences, if nuclear weapons were sold to Saudi Arabia.
Hamidullah also tried to object to Commerce Minister Khurram Dastgir’s use of English language, arguing that it violated the Supreme Court’s verdict. “Don’t discuss the SC decision,” Rabbani interjected, as he cautioned the senator to restrict arguments to the extent of his motion.
Dastgir, though, opposed the motion claiming that the newspaper had misquoted him as he read out a transcript.
The Senate Standing Committee on Cabinet Secretariat recommended that the Senate not pass the Pakistan International Airlines Corporation (Conversion) Bill, 2016. The committee chairman, Senator Talha Mehmood, presented the panel’s report before the house on Tuesday. The report recommended that the bill, which has already been passed by the National Assembly, “may not be passed”.
“The department concerned briefed the committee but could not satisfy the members on various questions and issues regarding the contents of the bill,” the report said, adding that the panel’s members were of the unanimous view that all the stakeholders should be consulted, especially the Unions of PIA employees amid consultations with the Senate Special Committee on Performance of PIA, Privatization Commission, the SECP and aviation industry experts.
Also read: Historic women’s rights bill praised by activists
