Senate Chairman Yousaf Raza Gilani on Friday issued production orders for PTI Senators Ejaz Chaudhry and Aon Abbas Buppi, instructing the authorities to ensure their presence in tomorrow’s Senate session.
This was not the first production order issued for Chaudhry, who is imprisoned at Lahore’s Kot Lakhpat Jail. In January, Gilani issued a production order for the PTI senator, who has been incarcerated for at least 19 months, so that he could attend the Senate session on January 14. However, Chaudhry failed to appear in the Senate session. Opposition lawmakers could be seen carrying placards with pictures of the missing senator during the proceedings.
Meanwhile, the Senate was informed a day ago that Buppi was arrested on charges of illegally poaching deer in Cholistan. Immediately after the suspension of question hour, Leader of the Opposition in the Senate Shibli Faraz said police had arrested Buppi during a raid at his Multan residence. He wondered whether a proper procedure was followed for the arrest and prior intimation was conveyed to the Senate Secretariat.
According to the production orders, available with Dawn.com, Chaudhry was currently in the judicial lockup at Kot Lakhpat Jail while Buppi was in the Bahawalpur police’s custody.
Gilani summoned both senators to attend the Senate session on Saturday at 11:30am under Rule 84 of the Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in the Senate, 2012.
“The honourable chairman considers necessary the presence of [Senators Chaudhry and Buppi] during remaining sittings of the current 347th session of the Senate of Pakistan,” the orders read.
Recipients of the order, including the interior secretary and Punjab and Islamabad officials, were directed to produce Senators Chaudhary and Buppi “at the commencement of each sitting of the said session” before the Senate Secretariat’s sergeant-at-arms, adding that they would be returned to custody after the conclusion of the sitting.
Addressing reporters earlier today in Karachi, the Senate chairman said that he had acted “by the book” throughout his 30-year political career.
“This is not the first time I’ve been a member. I’ve been a parliamentarian for 30 years, and I have served by the book. If I do anything, it is by the book,” Gilani said in response to a question about whether or not he was angry with the government for not acting on his prior production order for Chaudhry.
“If an honourable member is in jail, then according to the rules, I can issue a production order,” the chairman said. “If a production order is not enforced, it ruins the environment in parliament,” he added.
“I saw talk shows … where people were saying that a member (Buppi) has been picked up,” he added. “I will tell the federal government and the Punjab government to produce him, he should attend parliament. If he does not attend tomorrow, then I will issue a production order.”
Meanwhile, Buppi’s media team posted a statement to his X account, calling the arrest “a false case due to political revenge”.
“Senator Aon Abbas Bappi has been sent to judicial custody and his bail has been rejected,” the media team said in an update on the lawmaker’s situation.
