National Assembly Speaker Sardar Ayaz Sadiq on Tuesday suspended five security officials for four months, days after PTI lawmakers were arrested from inside the Parliament House.
Just after 3am on Tuesday, plainclothesmen had stormed the Parliament House — disconnecting the power supply and barging into the building’s Services Branch to whisk away at least 11 PTI legislators.
In light of the subsequent outcry by the PTI in the NA, Sadiq had ordered an immediate and complete investigation into the arrests from parliament.
According to an “office order” issued by the NA secretariat today, Sergeant-at-Arms (BPS-20) Muhammad Ishfaq Ashraf was suspended “with immediate effect for a period of 120 days”.
“During the period of his suspension, he will be entitled to draw pay and allowances as admissible under the applicable rules,” the order read.
While not specifying the reason for the move, it said the action was taken under rule 5(1) (suspension and leave) of the Civil Servants (Efficiency and Discipline) Rules, 2020.
Under the said rule, the appointing authority “may place any civil
servant under suspension or send him on leave, against whom proceedings are proposed to be initiated for an initial period” of 120 days at one time.
In a separate notice, the suspension orders for Security Assistant Waqas Ahmed (grade-14 official) as well as three junior security assistants (grade-9 officials) — namely Obaidullah, Muhammad Waheed Safdar and Muhammad Haroon — were issued.
The four officials were also placed under suspension for 120 days and “entitled to draw pay and allowances as admissible under the applicable rules”.
On Tuesday, declaring that he would lodge a first information report (FIR), if need be, the NA speaker had sought footage from all entry gates of the Parliament House for evidence-based action.
Sadiq also held deliberations with parliamentary leaders and members of the lower house, with Ali Muhammad Khan and Shandana Gulzar of the PTI and PML-N’s Rana Sanaullah among those present during the meeting.
During the meeting, he said there would be no compromise on the dignity and prestige of parliament. It was decided to formulate some rules of the game to avoid the recurrence of such incidents in future.
Later, the speaker had also summoned Islamabad’s Inspector General of Police (IGP) Syed Ali Nasir Rizvi to his chamber to get details of the arrests and ordered him to produce the detained MNAs in parliament.
On Monday night — a day after the PTI held its Sangjani power show — law enforcement agencies swooped in on the PTI’s top leadership, arresting at least three key members from different areas of Islamabad, while forcing others to take shelter in the Parliament House.
By 11pm on Monday, there were confirmed reports about the arrest of firebrand leader Sher Afzal Marwat, Waziristan MNA Zubair Khan and lawyer Shoaib Shaheen, who was taken into custody from his office in G-9.
At least 11 MNAs arrested included Marwat, Zubair, Chief Whip in NA Malik Amir Dogar, Sheikh Waqqas Akram, Bannu lawmaker Nasim Ali Shah, Zain Qureshi, Ahmed Chattha, Awais Haider Jakhar, Syed Shah Ahad Ali Shah, Yousuf Khattak and Abdul Latif Chitrali.
After being freed by the Islamabad police on Tuesday, PTI Chairman Gohar Ali Khan clarified that he had surrendered himself for arrest when Marwat was taken into custody.
Most PTI MNAs to not attend NA sessions till probe held: Gohar
Meanwhile, Gohar announced a boycott of NA proceedings by “all PTI MNAs except nine to ten” as the recent events continued to come under discussion in today’s assembly session.
Speaking in the National Assembly, Gohar said, “Until an inquiry is conducted into September 10 events and we are satisfied, PTI MNAs, except for nine to 10, will not participate in this parliament’s proceedings. We will not attend your committees’ [meetings].
“This is our protest,” the PTI leader asserted.
“It has come to my knowledge that Bilawal sahib has also tried [to address our concerns] and I thank him for that.
Regarding the arrests of “10 MNAs”, Gohar called on the NA deputy speaker to not conduct an inquiry that led to the suspension of “some innocent ordinary people but to go to the depth of it”.
During his address, Gohar warned the treasury benches that if PTI’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government wanted, it could also file cases against ministers of the ruling coalition.
However, the PTI MNA said he chose not to engage in “tit-for-tat” actions.
Recalling the suspension of PTI’s Punjab MPAs for 15 sessions, Gohar said he faced “pressure” as the party’s chairman but when a KP lawmaker from the ruling parties “misbehaved”, he chose to not have them suspended in return.
“We want the political forces to be strengthened so that unpolitical forces won’t get a chance,” the PTI chairman said.
The early morning incursion into Parliament House
Plainclothesmen stormed the Parliament House just after 3am on Tuesday, disconnecting the power supply and barging into the building’s Services Branch to whisk away PTI legislators.
Subsequently, MNAs Zain Qureshi, Amir Dogar, Sheikh Waqqas Akram and Nasim Ali Shah, along with others, were brought out from Parliament House and handed over to the police for legal action.
Three of the four vehicles subsequently left the premises and the MNAs were bundled into different cars.
After this episode, the power supply was restored and the “under custody” MNAs were brought out of the building through the Cabinet Division gate, where they were “rearrested” by the police. The detained lawmakers were later moved to the Central Investigation Agency Centre.
