Senators demand audit of CDT encounters

ISLAMABAD.: Like the lower house of parliament, the government on Monday faced criticism in the Senate, with senators rejecting the joint investigation team and demanding complete audit of all encounters counducted by the CTD.

Speaking in the Senate during discussion on Sahiwal incident, which was allowed by the Chairman, senators stressed for giving representation in the commission to one each member of the opposition and the treasury, both from the Senate and the National Assembly as observers.

The senators expressed dissatisfaction over constitution of the JIT and demanded independent commission to probe the incident.
The Senate chairman should seek daily report of the commission, they added.

They stressed other members to modify their approach, and avoid delivering speeches for the sake of speeches. They suggested reforms to bring about significant change in the police functioning.

Leader of the Opposition in Senate Raja Muhammad Zafarul Haq criticised the constitution of Joint Investigation Team (JIT) and demanded exemplary punishmentfor the responsible of Sahiwal incident.

Senator Sherry Rehman criticised the Punjab government for not taking appropriate action against the responsible for killing innocent citizens.

Senator Faisal Javed said the government will take action against those involved in the incident. He assured that the government will take appropriate steps upto peoples’ expectations.

He said that unlike past incidents, the present government did not try to cover up and did share the details of incident with the public. He advised the opposition to avoid politics on the issue.

Senator Kalsoom Parveen, strongly condemning the incident said that in future steps should be taken to avoid such incidents. She said that no one should be allowed to kill innocent people.

She said that there should be effective legislation to check such incidents andexpressed the hope that the government will take appropriate action.

Siraj-ul-Haq demanded forensic audit of extra judicial killings and criticized killing of innocent citizens.

Abdul Ghafoor Haideri demanded severe punishment for the responsible who killed the family in Sahiwal. Usman Kakar criticized what he said the culture of JIT and demanded independentinvestigations of the killing incident.

Meanwhile, the Senate unanimously passed a bill titled, “The Federal Universities (Amendment) Bill, 2017” aimed at making internship mandatory for ensuring practical experience of university students before getting degrees.

The bill moved by Senator Atteeq Shaikh said it was aimed at making internship mandatory for students with special focus in the fields of science and technology, trade, commerce and IT before issuing them degree as the students badly lacked practical experience.

With the passage of the bill, practical experience would be included in curriculum.

Senate Chairman Muhammad Sadiq Sanjrani referred another bill titled, “The Transplantation ofHuman Organs and Tissues (Amendment) Bill, 2018” to the Standing Committee of Law and Justice with the directives to present the report within a week.

Source: The Express Tribune