2019 a year of political detentions for Opp.

Byline: Javaid-ur-Rahman

ISLAMABAD -- The year 2019 was one of the toughest years for the opposition parties in the recent history as scores of top sitting lawmakers including sitting opposition leader, former prime minister and former president remained imprisoned in different charges.

Most of the arrested opposition MNAs, in the outgoing year, probably have spent most of their time in the custody of law enforcement agencies.

The senior MNAs including sitting opposition leader Muhammad Shahbaz Sharif, former president /PPP-P Co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari, PML-N MNA/former prime minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, PPP-P MNA/former leader of opposition in the national assembly Syed Khursheed Shah, PML MNAs Rana Sanaullah, Khawaja Saad Rafique, Chaudhary Ahsan Iqbal and two MNAs from North Waziristan Ali Wazir and Mohsin Dawar were arrested by different law enforcement agencies during the year [2019].

With other major demands, the joint parliamentary opposition factions most of the time seen raising voice for issuance of production orders of arrested lawmakers.

MNAs PPP-P MNA and former leader of opposition in the national assembly Syed Khursheed Shah, PML MNAs Rana Sanaullah, Khawaja Saad Rafique, Chaudhary Ahsan Iqbal, two MNAs from north Waziristan Mohsin Dawar and Ali were not permitted to attend the house proceedings.

The colleagues of these arrested MNAs had also floated written and verbal requests to the speaker national assembly to allow them at least to attend proceedings of the standing committees.

The major opposition parties even blamed speaker national assembly Asad Qaiser for deliberately not issuing production orders of some of the MNAs, as half of these arrested lawmakers could not attend the proceedings after their arrest. Likewise, only Khwaja Muhammad Saad Rafique was allowed to attend the proceedings of the standing committee of railways.

Opposition...