Senate session called to discuss Palestine issue

ISLAMABAD: The Senate will be finally meeting during this week to discuss the ongoing massive ‘humanitarian disaster in Palestine’ after its last session was held in August, announced the Senate Secretariat Monday.

This will be the first session of the upper house of Parliament since the caretaker government took over. Though during this period, Pakistan People’s Party attempted twice for a requisitioned session, for certain reasons, it attempts failed to yield the desire result.

The Senate Secretariat issued a brief statement on Monday, which says, “Chairman Senate of Pakistan, Muhammad Sadiq Sanjrani, has decided to convene a session of the Senate during this week to discuss the grave issue of the ongoing Palestine situation and condemn the barbaric bombings by the Zionist Israeli Army in besieged Gaza Strip.”

The decision to summon the session came only three days after the PPP with the support of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf and some other parties, including Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam- Fazl (JUIF) and Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) submitted a requisition to summon the House.

However, there were parties, which preferred not to be a part of the PPP-led initiative, including Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PMLN), Balochistan Awami Party (BAP), Awami National Party (ANP) and Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM).

But quite surprisingly, the Senate Secretariat made no mention of the requisition application as well as those, who had signed it. However, it referred to legally meaningless letters in the context of the requisition, written to the Senate chairman by Leader of the House in the Senate Ishaq Dar, and Parliamentary Leader of the Balochistan Awami Party Manzoor Kakar and urged him to convene a session of the House to discuss and deliberate on the situation in Palestine.

The Senate Secretariat said, “This session aims at emphasising Pakistan’s commitment to peace, justice, and solidarity with the Palestinian people. The session will provide senators with an opportunity to voice their opinions, share insights, and contribute to a comprehensive discussion regarding the ongoing situation in Palestine.”

PPP’s bids for summoning of a requisitioned session had failed: once over ‘mismatched signatures’ of some PPP senators without reaching out to them for authentication and the second time withdrawal of signatures by some senators. It was a rare move in parliamentary history that some legislators signed a requisition and their signatures were found to be mismatching but no attempt was made to verify or confirm them by inviting them to the Senate Secretariat or on telephone.

Similarly, it was also strange that as many as five senators put their signatures on a requisition motion and then decided to withdraw.