ISLAMABAD - The incident of a raid of law-enforcement and investigation agencies on the residence of Leader of the House in the Senate Jehangir Badr in the red zone of capital on Monday became a source of heated debate over the powers and limits of the State institutions in the Upper House especially of the Supreme Court and Election Commission that came under criticism from the Treasury sides.The lawmakers declared the raid of State agencies including National Accountability Bureau (NAB) on the official residence of Leader of the House in the Senate at Punjab House situated in the red zone of the capital during wee hours of Monday was a part of the recent move to disgrace the politicians, the Parliamentarians and the Parliament. They demanded a complete inquiry report from the Interior Ministry and removal of the police officials involved in this action. A senior PPP legislator Mian Raza Rabbani termed it State terrorism while Haji Adeel said that some invisible and superior forces always worked in Pakistan during democratic regimes.PPP lawmaker Senator Farhatullah Babar indicated that the government could bring Dr Arsalan Iftikhar case before the Parliament while Senator Saeed Ghani said that Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry violated his oath in Dr Arsalan Iftikhar case.Jehangir Badr in the start of the fresh session of the House informed that in the wee hours of Monday, NAB alongwith Punjab Police, Islamabad Police and Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) personnel raided his residence to search for Tauqeer Sadiq, former OGRA Chairman and his close relative, who was wanted by Bureau in some corruption cases. “Nobody is above the law and if my relative is wanted by State agencies, he should be arrested,” he said ,adding, that he would never provide refuge to any culprit and he had no relations with the matter. He said he was taking the House into confidence so that nobody could initiate my media trial on the issue.However, Senator Farhatullah Babar speaking on this issue broadened the scope of the debate and discussed the role of State institutions and termed it a matter of disgracing the Parliament and its members. “It is a continuation of the policies of disrespecting the Parliament and the politicians,” he stressed. He said that letter of Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to the Parliament to have fresh declarations from the Parliamentarians was also part of it. Parliamentarians had already submitted their declarations at the time of submission of their nomination papers before the Election Commission then why they were being suspected, he added.He said the punishment of mistake of 10 to 12 Parliamentarians who gave wrong declarations could not be given to the whole Parliament and ECP over stepped its mandate by writing to the Parliament because it was not part of election process. He said that SC rejected the ruling of Speaker National Assembly in former Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani case; it struck down the contempt of court law and accepted the law legislated during a military dictator’s regime. He also said that the Parliament could take up the Dr Arsalan case but it respected the judiciary and did not do so “ I request the SC, ECP and the bureaucracy to respect the Parliament,” he said ,adding, that the Parliament should stand up now and say enough is enough. 

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