Things started heating up after Shibli alleged chairman of standing committee PML-N’s Afnan did not share the agenda.
ISLAMABAD: PTI and PML-N senators traded barbs in a heated exchange on Wednesday, while discussing allegations against the wife of former special assistant to Prime Minister Shahbaz Gill.
At the onset of the meeting of the senate standing committee on science and technology, PTI’s Shibli Faraz and PML-N’s Afnan Ullah Khan, who is also the chairman of the standing committee, butted heads on various issues.
First Faraz protested that the chairman did not share the agenda of the day, adding that Khan was not the spokesperson of his party but the head of the committee.
Another point of contention was the Pakistan Standards & Quality Control Authority (PSQCA), which the chairman noted had not shifted its headquarters to Islamabad. Faraz replied that the committee had earlier voted to relocate the headquarters.
But officials of the ministry of science and technology added that if a new law had been passed for the transfer then no one had informed them.
Senator Faraz also complained that three names had been forwarded to the cabinet for the head of the PSQCA, but no appointment had been made.
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Afnan Ullah Khan added that recently he had powdered milk in his tea and fell ill. To which, the officials of the ministry of science and technology explained that there was a difference between tea whiteners and powdered milk.
Later when the topic of Izza Asad Rasool, Shahbaz Gill’s wife, came up for discussion the exchange between the two senators became more intense.
Rasool has been accused by a university in Islamabad of defaulting on around Rs18.6 million after going abroad for higher education on a scholarship and not completing her programme.
The chairman of the committee suggested that Rasool be called to the meeting or asked to answer questions via video link, adding that she had wasted the university’s money.
An enraged Senator Faraz called the issue a “political one” and said that there were many other cases like that of Rasool’s and a list should be drawn up besides focusing on only one case.
Khan then accused Faraz of defending corruption for the last four years.
“You are the wrong person to head the committee,” Faraz shot back, adding that Khan was only doing politics.
“Who are you? No one knows you,” Khan retorted, claiming that Faraz became a senator by giving money and due to his use of foul language.
Faraz then called Khan a “disgusting person”, before storming out.
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