Zubair Qureshi
Islamabad
Senate Standing Committee on Interior in its meeting on Monday discussed the draft bill introduced by Senator Sajjad Hussain Turi and passed it after enhancing the punishment from six months to 3 years for adulterators. The meeting that was chaired by Senator Rehman A Malik also approved all amendments proposed by the ministry pertaining to administrative aspects of the authority.
The committee appreciated the bill and termed it the need of the hour in face of the ever increasing reports of hazardous food items being imported, sold and supplied across the country. Senator Rehman Malik said availability of pure food is the responsibility of the government and the bill will prove highly beneficial in this regard. He wished the same Bill should be introduced at provincial levels that can be implemented across the country. He said he had learnt that dead chicken and animals were being sold in Islamabad and other parts of the country.
The meeting that was attended among others by Senators Sardar Shafiq Tareen, Dr. Shehzad Waseem, Kalsoom Parveen, Momin Khan Afridi, Muhammad Tahir Bizenjo, Sajjad Hussain Turi, Mian Ateeq Sheikh, Secretary Interior, Chairman NADRA, DG BOE, Directors FIA, Director NACTA, Director CDA and officials from other ministries condemned Indian Forces brutality in the Held Kashmir saying it was the 121st day long curfew in the valley.
The committee decided to send a reminder to Ministry of Foreign Affairs in its earlier recommendation to take the issue up with ICC and ICJ and declaring Prime Minister Narendra Modi as a war criminal. Senate Standing Committee on Interior passed a resolution seeking shifting of former President Asif Ali Zardari’s cases from Islamabad to Karachi. Senator Rehman Malik converted the demand of Senator Kulsoom Parveen into a resolution and passed it with majority votes.
He said the Senate committee on interior had taken suo moto notice about the health of former president Asif Ali Zardari and had urged the government to allow him to get medical treatment from his personal doctor. He added that on November 30, the committee was informed that his personal physician has been included in the medical board. He further said that all the family members of Asif Ali Zardari are residing in Karachi due to which there is every reason to shift him from Islamabad to Karachi and moreover there is no legal justification that he could be trial in another city than home city.
Senator Kulsoom Parveen said that Asif Ali Zardari is not being treated like other people and she seeks the immediate transfer of his case to Karachi. While discussing the actions taken so far with reference to 70 Pakistanis stranded in Iraq who went there through fake agents, Senator A. Rehman Malik informed that he had taken the notice of the issue and had directed the FIA and BOE to take stringent actions against fake overseas employment agents.
