Ehsanullah Ehsan’s threat to Bilawal echoes in Senate

ISLAMABAD: The Upper House of the Parliament on Friday echoed with a threat hurled at the PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari by former TTP spokesman Ehsanullah Ehsan.

The PPP Parliamentary Leader in the Senate Sherry Rehman said her party chairman had been given threat from the twitter account of Ehsanullah Ehsan, who is known the world over for being in the lead in a terrorist outfit and being declared a proclaimed offender and taking responsibility for the Army Public School (APS) carnage.

“There has always been a reaction from the government on speeches of Bilawal Bhutto Zardari in National Assembly, but this reaction has been very alarming,” she noted.

She wanted to know Ehsanullah Ehsan’s status as to where was he and why was not he in someone’s custody. Sherry Rehman emphasised that Bilawal’s mother had already become a victim of terrorism and it was the government’s responsibility to probe the threat given to Bilawal.

Ehsanullah Ehsan’s account, she noted, was genuine. She asked was Ehsan given leave and cautioned that Imran Khan would be responsible if Bilawal was even slightly hurt.

The Senate was informed that Indian pilot Abhinandan was set free after consultations with the opposition parties, which had praised the gesture, while the PML-N insisted the Indian pilot and an Israeli pilot were freed under US pressure.

Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Ali Muhammad Khan responded to a point of public importance raised by the PML-N senior member Senator Mushahidullah Khan after the question hour. The PML-N legislator alleged that the captured Indian pilot and an Israeli pilot were set free due to US pressure. Senator Mushahidullah also questioned the claim of following the model of state of Madina and at the same time announcing interest-based housing scheme.

About China’s decision to invest $400 billion in Iran, he said that this could have been for Pakistan, had this government not stopped work on CPEC; a claim that Ali Muhammad denied vehemently, saying CPEC was the game-changer project and work on it was continuing. In response to a call attention notice, Ali Muhammad said in categorical terms that there was no decision or plan as of now to reduce retirement age limit of government employees.

The PPP Senator Mian Raza Rabbani called for constitution of the House Committee of the Whole to take up the PIA issues, with special reference to the pilots’ bogus licences and now DG CAA letter, claiming the documents were genuine.

Minister for Energy Omar Ayub Khan said power generation in the country was sufficient and hence no loadshedding was taking place anywhere.

The minister said the present government had focused on the power sector and 23,000MW electricity was being transmitted, whereas in the previous regime, the transmission stood at 18000MW. He added that to meet demand of electricity, there was capacity to generate more power. He said that K-Electric was a private company and the government was supplying more gas to K-Electric than the contract. At present, he said, the demand for electricity in Karachi is 3,400MW. He said K-Electric should have invested as much as it could in the system, but it did not.

Omar Ayub Khan said that if the government does not collect taxes then how will the government spend.

Senator Jehanzeb Jamaldini wondered if there was no loadshedding, then why his Balochistan province was witnessing long hours without electricity daily.

Leader of the House Dr Shahzad Waseem said the state institutions had been destroyed by political recruitments in the past. “There were also prime ministers whose owned airlines which continued to grow and the PIA continued to decline,” he said. At one time, there was an exchange of hot words between him and some opposition senators, who afterwards walked out of the House in protest. Shahzad apologised and said it he remarked in a lighter mood that if they don’t have patience to listen to him, they should go out. “We have patiently listened to what they said and now they should listen to us,” he said. Ali Muhammad Khan said that they never doubted patriotism of Mian Nawaz Sharif, but could have difference over his policy, for example on CPEC, when Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan were not given priority. “No one can go against Pakistan, be it Imran Khan, Nawaz Sharif or Zardari. Balochistan is so close to Prime Minister Imran Khan,” he maintained.