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       ISLAMABAD: Sardar Akhtar Mengal, the head of his own faction of the Balochistan National Party (BNP-M), has announced his intention to file a reference seeking the disqualification of two senators who voted in favour of the 26th Constitution Amendment Bill, in violation of the party line.

       BNP-M senators Muhammad Qasim and Naseema Ehsan had voted in support of the bill, enabling the ruling coalition to complete its numbers in the upper house of the parliament.

       Talking to Dawn soon after the passage of the amendment bill from the Senate, Mr Mengal alleged that he was expelled from the visitors’ gallery and the members’ lobby of the Senate by the sergeant-at-arms before the start of the voting process so that he could not meet the two party dissidents.

       He said he had gone to the Senate just to have eye contact with the two senators and in an effort to at least make them feel embarrassed, but security officials told him that he could not sit in the gallery and the lobby as per the directives of Senate Chairman Yousuf Raza Gilani.

       BNP-M chief claims he was expelled from Senate visitors’ gallery before vote

       The move appears to be part of extra security measures taken by the government ahead of the crucial vote in both houses of parliament, on Sunday.

       Earlier, reports suggested that unidentified men had allegedly abducted the husband and a son of Naseema Ehsan from Parliament Lodges. During the Senate session on Oct 17, when the opposition members criticised the government for alleged harassment, Ms Ehsan took the floor, but she was so disturbed that she found it difficult to narrate details and just said: “The sanctity of chador and chaar diwari had been violated”.

       Before the start of the Senate session, a video clip went viral on social media, showing security officials bringing BNP-M’s Muhammad Qasim, who had been missing for the past few days, to the house on a wheelchair.

       “This is not an assembly, but a circus where everybody is dancing to the whip,” said Mr Mengal while declaring that he would not attend the NA sitting during the vote on the amendment bill since he had already resigned.

       Published in Dawn, October 21th, 2024