Abid Sher, Nafisa Shah exchange hot words in NA

ISLAMABAD: Minister of State for Water and Power Abid Sher Ali and PPP MNA Dr Nafisa Shah traded hot words in the National Assembly on Friday when the female parliamentarian termed the reply to a question addressed to the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra) as unsatisfactory.
The PPP member said non-serious attitude was being demonstrated by the ministry while submitting reply to questions. Abid Sher Ali tried to counter the remarks of Nafeesa Shah, saying that he was ready to reply to any question regarding his ministry.
Speaker Ayaz Sadiq warned federal secretaries of suspension from service if they provided inadequate and incomplete answers to parliament during Question-Hour in future.Low attendance of parliamentarians and walkouts by the opposition members for receiving unsatisfactory answers to their questions continued to haunt the proceedings of the House.
The quorum in the House was lacking since the start of proceedings on Friday as only 48 members were present. The walkout from members of the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) further made it difficult to run the House.
Firstly, the proceedings of the House were suspended during the Question-Hour when the PPP lawmaker Munawwar Ali Talpur pointed out the lack of quorum after his party colleagues and other opposition members had staged a walkout from the proceedings.
The members of the main opposition parties did not return to the House till adjournment of proceedings before time. The members of Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) also staged a walkout against the increase in hours of power outages in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
The situation forced Speaker Sardar Ayaz Sadiq to suspend the proceedings till completion of the quorum. The proceedings resumed after 25 minutes but the House was not found in order as only 69 members were present and it was adjourned till Monday afternoon.
Meanwhile, the House was informed that electricity loadshedding hours had been reduced from 21st of this month. Abid Sher Ali told the House during Question-Hour that 1,500 megawatt electricity will be added to the national grid by the 15th of next month which would help overcome power shortages. He said there was an increase in the duration of loadshedding during the recent past due to dip in hydel power generation but the situation had become normal after the 21st of this month. He said six to seven hours loadshedding was being carried out in urban areas and nine to 10 hours in rural areas. To a question, he told the House that 80 percent of 260 feeders in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa were being run on losses.
Answering a question, Abid Sher Ali informed the House that the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (Ecnec) had approved revised the PC-I of acquisition of land and resettlement of Diamer-Bhasha Dam Project amounting to over Rs101 billion. He said the compensation of land and assets had been enhanced from 33.5 billion to 49.8 billion rupees, adding that the project was expected to be completed within the cost approved by Ecnec. To another question, Minister of State for National Health Services Saira Afzal Tarar said that the National Emergency Action Plan was being implemented nation-wide to eradicate polio from the country.
She told the House during Question-Hour that the situation was under control due to the efforts of the federal and provincial governments.
The minister of state said the launch of Operation Zarb-e-Azb had provided accessibility to the vulnerable children of North and South Waziristan since July last year, which will greatly facilitate Pakistan in moving towards polio eradication.
She said the National Islamic Advisory Group has been constituted to work with local level religious leaders, especially in high risk areas to minimise refusals and cover the missed children. She pointed out that in order to prevent the export of polio virus to other countries around 27,000 outbound travellers were being vaccinated against polio on daily basis.
Saira Afzal Tarar told the House that the TB Control Programme was going on successfully in the country and hoped that MDGs will be met by the end of next year.