Nacta being given required funds, Senate told

ISLAMABAD: The Senate was told on Tuesday that National Counter-Terrorism Authority (Nacta) was being provided budget as per its requirements, to deal with the security-related challenges.

During the question hour in the house, Minister of State for Interior Talal Chaudhry said Nacta’s budget had not been cut, but increased manifold over the last few years. He said the budget estimate of Rs1528.72 million was submitted to the Finance Division for the current financial year in respect of Nacta. An amount of Rs143.019 million had already been allocated while the remaining Rs1385.70 million would be released as and when demanded by the counterterrorism authority.

The minister of state informed the house that Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, Sindh and Gilgit-Baltistan had cancelled the registration of some madrasas (seminaries) for various reasons including their involvement in anti-state activities.

Railways Minister Khwaja Saad Rafique told the house that the earning of Pakistan Railways had increased from Rs18 billion to over 40 billion over the last few years. He said upgradation of mainline 1 and construction of dry port and cargo handling facility had been included as early harvest projects under China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).

Saad Rafique said preparatory work on these projects has been initiated on fast-track basis. He said upgradation ML-2 and ML-3 and establishing new lines for linking Gwadar and Khunjerab have also been planned.

He said the project for computerisation of Railways land record is near completion, which would ensure safeguarding the Railway land through a computerised monitoring system.

Meanwhile, various senators appreciated the clear stance taken by Pakistan regarding the new US policy on Afghanistan and elaborating the same to US Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs during his recent visit to the country.

Taking part in debate in Senate, Saud Majeed said Foreign Minister Khwaja Asif had told Pakistan’s stance to the visiting US delegation and the other world in clear terms. The present government had the courage to call a spade a spade.

There is need to have good relations with neighbouring countries but they should also respect Pakistan’s sovereignty, he added.

Jehanzeb Jamaldini said the United States had attacked Iraq but it failed to gain anything. The time had proven that the US attack on Iraq was a mistake, he added. Javed Abbassi said the US was itself confused about its policy on South Asia.

The US must review its Afghan policy, he stressed. He said the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor was a game changer for the entire region and it would improve the country’s economy.

Saleem Zia said Foreign Minister Khwaja Asif had highlighted the issues arisen due to Afghanistan to the visiting US delegation boldly as per aspirations of the Pakistani nation. Muzaffar Hussain Shah, Sehar Kamran, Azam Swati, Tahir Hussain Mashhadi, Attique Sheikh, Nasreen Jalil, Taj Haider, Usman Kakar and Farhat Ullah Babar also took part in the debate.