ISLAMABAD, Aug 03 (APP): Defence Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif on Tuesday said that Parliament is supreme institution and protecting the supremacy of the house is legislator’s constitutional responsibility.
Participating in debate in the National Assembly, he said that if the head of any institution was summoned in any of Parliamentary committees, he must appear.
He said that strengthening this institution is the responsibility of all, including the government and the opposition member of Parliament.
Khawaja Asif said that we have to make the committees of this house effective, as these committees were actually an extension of this house.
He said that everyone should be accountable to the committees while recognizing the supremacy of the Parliament.
He said that if any institution head can appear in the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) meeting, so why can’t the NAB.
He said that PAC chairman has raised an important issue and this institution should stand behind the committee.
He said that the PAC was the most influential committee in the House. “If someone challenges chairman PAC in terms of his work, jurisdiction, we should bring him to the House who considers themselves as holy cows”, he added.
He proposed that a special parliamentary committee should be formed to investigate this matter.
He said that in 75 years, Parliament was the most targeted, sometimes it was the target of dictatorship and sometimes it was the target of 58-B.
He said that for the last 14 years, fortunately, there has been no accident with this institution of Parliament.
The minister said that PTI government in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa had closed accountability institution.
He said that accountability was carried out in all other provinces, why was it closed in KP and the institution was locked.
He said that previous day the claimant to run the country under the constitution was exposed by the constitutional institution for submitting a false affidavit.
He said that PTI chief Imran Khan kept receiving money from Israel and America.
He said that the United Kingdom’s National Crime Agency confiscated and sent Rs 50 billion of Bahria Town directly to the government, which was adjusted, against their liabilities. Property Tycoon gave land for Al-Qadir University as bribe. “We were jailed due to our affiliation with political party”, he added.
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