that led to shortage of petrol.
Senate Chairman, Syed Nayyar Hussain Bokhari referred the issue of no replies given to 12 written questions to the privilege committee. The matter was agitated by Leader of Opposition Aitzaz Ahsan as well, who questioned was this the performance of the government: majority of queries were about the Capital Administration and Development Division.
The debate on the petrol crisis will resume in the next session to be held in next few days. Amid chants of shame shame by the opposition senators, Minister for Commerce Khurram Dastagir laid in the House the Gas Infrastructure Development Cess Ordinance, 2014.
Earlier, the minister on behalf of the Minister of Finance Muhammad Ishaq Dar introduced two bills: to amend The Companies Ordinance, 1984 and the Stock Exchanges (Corporation, Demutualisation and Integration) Act, 2012 (The Stock Exchanges Corporation, Demutualisation and Integration) Amendment Bill, 2015.
Senator Mushahid Hussain Syed sought leave to move the proposed amendment in the Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in the Senate, 2012, regarding substitution of sub-rule (3) of rule 270. The amendment was adopted.
The amendment envisages that the members of the Senate’s Forum for Policy Research shall elect from amongst themselves a member as chairman of the forum within one month of the its constitution or reconstitution or the occurrence of vacancy, as the case may be. The term of the office of chairman shall be one year and he shall be eligible to be re-elected.
Earlier, during the question hour, Minister of State for Information Technology Anusha Rehman told the House that in line with the Supreme Court order in 2012, with regards to blockade of offending material, YouTube was blocked by PTA, as there was no technical solution available other than this.
The matter, she noted, was reviewed several times but the situation effectively remained the same and technical experts were of the view that there was no technical solution available, which could guarantee 100 percent blocking of the objectionable content from YouTube.
Opposition Senators Osman Saifullah, Haji Muhammad Adeel and Muhammad Zahid Khan agitated on selling electricity at higher rates to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa as compared to Faisalabad. They questioned the logic behind this ‘discrimination’, as Khyber Pakhtunkhwa produced cheapest hydel electricity and still had to pay more than in Punjab. Minister Incharge Shiekh Aftab Ahmad could not satisfy the senators. The chair called for a detailed reply during the next session.