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ISLAMABAD: Interior Minister Rehman Malik seemed to be calling for a new libel law in the National Assembly on Wednesday as he denied heading any longer a London-based telecom company that allegedly benefited because of him from favourable government policies about the so-called grey telephony.
Interrupting the general debate on the new budget, the minister reacted angrily to criticism by an opposition member, Tahira Aurangzeb of the PML-N, who called for his removal from the cabinet on the basis of a Dawn report that described him as chairman of Rodcom Europe.
He said he had founded Rodcom when he was in exile in Britain, but left it before joining the present government and that, following his advice to his partner to wind it up, that company does not exist now.
The minister called for setting up a house committee to probe the matter and offered to resign from the cabinet as well as the Senate if the report involving him in the affair were proved correct. But he said those criticising him must also resign if the allegations against him were proved wrong.
There was no immediate response to his demand from Deputy Speaker Faisal Karim Kundi, who was chairing the house at the time.
The minister blamed the absence of an effective libel law for what he called defamatory stories appearing every and now then not only about him but about so many other people as well. And what appeared as his suggestion for a new libel law came in just three words time has come of a sentence he left incomplete before switching to another remark. While informing the house that he had sent a notice to Dawn group to sue it for damages worth Rs5 billion for printing what he called a concocted story, he accused the PML-N member of being unfair to him despite his role in the present governments policy of political reconciliation and refraining from victimisation. If it were not for this policy, he said, he could play havoc by disclosing a lot he knew about other people.
Mr Malik said he preferred to engage in business in Britain rather live on the dole when he went into exile there as did PML-N leaders Nawaz Sharif and Shahbaz Sharif later in Saudi Arabia after then President Pervez Musharraf exiled them.
A total of 23 members from both the ruling coalition and opposition parties spoke in a largely dull sitting on the eighth day of the budget debate before the house was adjourned to 11am on Thursday.
The Minister of State for Communications, Imtiaz Safdar Warraich, caused some excitement when he challenged the opposition members to honour their oath to protect the constitution by going to the Supreme Court to become a party in petitions challenging the Eighth Amendment and President Asif Ali Zardaris constitutional immunity from prosecution while he is in office.
PML-N member Zahid Hamid termed the budgets total revenue targets over-estimated and total expenditure targets under-estimated and called for making what he saw as needed drastic changes before voting on the document.
Interrupting the general debate on the new budget, the minister reacted angrily to criticism by an opposition member, Tahira Aurangzeb of the PML-N, who called for his removal from the cabinet on the basis of a Dawn report that described him as chairman of Rodcom Europe.
He said he had founded Rodcom when he was in exile in Britain, but left it before joining the present government and that, following his advice to his partner to wind it up, that company does not exist now.
The minister called for setting up a house committee to probe the matter and offered to resign from the cabinet as well as the Senate if the report involving him in the affair were proved correct. But he said those criticising him must also resign if the allegations against him were proved wrong.
There was no immediate response to his demand from Deputy Speaker Faisal Karim Kundi, who was chairing the house at the time.
The minister blamed the absence of an effective libel law for what he called defamatory stories appearing every and now then not only about him but about so many other people as well. And what appeared as his suggestion for a new libel law came in just three words time has come of a sentence he left incomplete before switching to another remark. While informing the house that he had sent a notice to Dawn group to sue it for damages worth Rs5 billion for printing what he called a concocted story, he accused the PML-N member of being unfair to him despite his role in the present governments policy of political reconciliation and refraining from victimisation. If it were not for this policy, he said, he could play havoc by disclosing a lot he knew about other people.
Mr Malik said he preferred to engage in business in Britain rather live on the dole when he went into exile there as did PML-N leaders Nawaz Sharif and Shahbaz Sharif later in Saudi Arabia after then President Pervez Musharraf exiled them.
A total of 23 members from both the ruling coalition and opposition parties spoke in a largely dull sitting on the eighth day of the budget debate before the house was adjourned to 11am on Thursday.
The Minister of State for Communications, Imtiaz Safdar Warraich, caused some excitement when he challenged the opposition members to honour their oath to protect the constitution by going to the Supreme Court to become a party in petitions challenging the Eighth Amendment and President Asif Ali Zardaris constitutional immunity from prosecution while he is in office.
PML-N member Zahid Hamid termed the budgets total revenue targets over-estimated and total expenditure targets under-estimated and called for making what he saw as needed drastic changes before voting on the document.
