ISLAMABAD: The Upper House of the Parliament on Wednesday saw an uproar over the appointment of Ali Jahangir Siddiqui as the new ambassador for United States.
PTI Senator Samina Saeed speaking over a call attention notice raised the issue, saying that the relationship between Pakistan and US was in a critical stage.
“The US was considering imposition of sanctions against Pakistan. In such a crucial situation, there is a need to appoint a career diplomat in the US but its regretful that the Prime Minister has nominated his business partner’s son,” she said, adding that Siddiqui had no prior experience of handling diplomatic missions and was facing accountability cases in the country.
She urged the government to consult relevant standing committees of the National Assembly and Senate for nomination of Pakistani diplomats to the US.
The PTI senator’s suggestion that Siddqui was appointed because of his close business relations with the PM infuriated Senator Saadia Abbasi, the PM’s sister, and she interrupted Samina Saeed several times.
The ensuing chaos proved difficult to handle for the newly elected chairman. However, the situation calmed when Federal Minister for National Health Services Saira Afzal Tarar intervened.
Responding to the calling attention notice, Foreign Minister Khawaja Asif said that the appointment of ambassadors was the prerogative of the Prime Minister. Regarding the objection about the lack of diplomatic credentials of Siddiqui, Asif said a 20 percent quota was available in ambassadorial appointments for the non-diplomatic corps.
In past, civil servants, retired military officers and politicians were given diplomatic appointments under the quota, he said.
The minister also claimed that no case was pending against Ali Siddiqui in the National Accountability Bureau. There was, therefore, no violation of the law in his appointment, he said.
Regarding PM Abbasi being subjected to a body search at a US airport, he said, “The Prime Minister was on a personal visit to the US, not in his capacity as the prime minister. For him to be searched as Shahid Khaqan Abbasi is in no way inappropriate.”
Earlier, during the questions hours, Asif apprised the Senate that there were 1,357 and 1,580 Pakistani prisoners in Riyadh and Jeddah regions, respectively. He said main charges against them were drugs related, bringing un-prescribed tranquilizer tablets, theft, forgery, immoral crimes, murder, rape, and brawl / fighting.
He said as per local regulations, only practicing Saudi lawyers were permitted to appear in the local courts. The minister said as many as 66 Pakistanis had been executed in Saudi Arabia since 2013. The minister said Pakistani missions in Saudi Arabia provided consular access to all prisoners in Saudi jails.
However, legal services provided by the missions were limited to translation, facilitation in preparation of cases and persuasion with various agencies, he said.
To another question, the minister said the government was ready to make proper arrangements with other countries to address Pakistani prisoners’ issues. He said a proposal had been sent to India to relax maximum and minimum age from 70 to 60 and from 18-16 for exchange of prisoners between the two countries.
He also said that arrangements were being made with various countries, including India, Afghanistan, Gulf, and European countries for repatriation of convicted Pakistani prisoners to spend their conviction term in Pakistan.
In a written report presented to the upper house on Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf’s request, Asif told the Senate that over a billion rupees were spent on former prime minister Nawaz Sharif’s international trips during his third term in office. He said Sharif made 64 international tours during his third term and Saudi Arabia was his most frequently visited country. He visited it seven times, followed by the US where he went six times.
The Senate also unanimously passed a resolution condemning killing of about three hundred seminary students in Kunduz province of Afghanistan as result of US bombardment.
Published in Daily Times, April 12th 2018.
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