ISLAMABAD: As the opposition members staged protest in the National Assembly against planned privatisation of the Pakistan Steel Mills (PSM), the government informed the House that decision in this regard was taken during the PML-N regime.
The PPP parliamentarian Agha Rafiullah waived placards in the National Assembly hall inscribed with demands of resignation of the federal minister Asad Umar reminding him of his promise made with employees of the Steel Mills.
Agha Rafiullah also distributed placards among other PPP parliamentarians who kept standing while protesting against government’s decision to go ahead with privatisation of Steel Mills.
Without speaking in the mike, Agha Rafiullah said that Asad Umar when in opposition and promised to protect rights of Steel Mills but now he had backed out of his promise.
Deputy Speaker Qasim Suri asked the protesting members to wait for their turn and refrain from violation of rules and staging protest in the House.
Federal Minister Murad Saeed while responding to allegations of the opposition members said that downfall of the Steel Mills started during decade of 1990 and later it was the PML-N, which decided its privatisation along with other organisations. “The downfall began during the PPP tenure while the deficit increased when the PML-N was in the government,” he said.
Murad Saeed went on to say that the PML-N government short-listed 41 organisations including the Pakistan Steel Mills and PIA, which were to be short-listed. He said that the deficit of PIA also reached the figure of Rs500 billion while an aircraft from its fleet also went missing. “Whom they are blaming for downfall of these organisations whereas they themselves allowed them to go into losses,” he said.
He pointed out that the government was reforming these entities so that the benefits could reach the masses. He told the House that revenue of Pakistan Post has also increased saying the first year, it witnessed 70 percent and the second year saw 110 percent increase in revenue.
Jam Abdul Kareem of PPP questioned as to where promises of Asad Umar have gone as he used to claim that he would continue to stand with Steel Mills’ employees. He regretted the PTI government was talking about removing 9,350 employees who support as many employees.
He reminded the government that most of recruitments in Steel Mills were made from the year 2004 to 2007 when Babar Ghuri, who hails from allies of the incumbent government, was concerned federal minister during the Musharraf regime.
He said it was responsibility of the government to keep Steel Mills functional by providing raw material. Adviser on Parliamentary Affairs Dr Babar Awan laid before the Lower House (National Assembly) the Tax Laws (Amendment) Ordinance 2020.
The adviser also laid four bills including the Maritime Security Agency (Amendment) Bill, National College of Arts Institute Bill, National Vocational and Technical Training Commission (Amendment) bill and the Regulation of Generation, Transmission and Distribution of Electric Power (Amendment) bill.
The members said the locusts have badly affected crops in different districts of the country and demanded that sufficient resources should be allocated to cope with this challenge. They said the crop devouring pests have become a more serious issue than COVID-19 and the affected districts be cleared through aerial sprays.
Khawaja Sheraz Mahmood, Ghulam Mustafa Shah and Sabir Hussain Qaimkhani took part in discussion on locust attack on crops in the country.
Meanwhile, Minister for Aviation Ghulam Sarwar Khan informed the National Assembly that a preliminary report on PIA plane crash in Karachi would be presented before the house on 22nd of this month.
“It will be a preliminary report while the detailed report will be released later,” the minister while speaking in the National Assembly on Wednesday said.
The minister said the decoding of voice and data boxes have been done and this will be made part of the inquiry to make it credible. He said the International Pilots Association has now been requested to provide one pilot and one technician to help in the investigation of the crash.
The minister said the inquiry reports of other plane crashes that took place in the recent past including those in the federal capital will also be made public.
Ghulam Sarwar Khan said about 56,000 stranded Pakistanis have been brought back from different parts of the world by operating 285 flights. He said out five out of 12 flight were operated to the US to bring back 1,200 Pakistanis. He said 479 bodies of overseas Pakistanis have also been brought back.
Ghulam Sarwar Khan further said that the outsourcing of airports and PIA’s Roosevelt Hotel in New York will be done in the most transparent manner and a committee for this purpose has been constituted. The minister said that he would respond to all seven questions as posed by the PML-N member Khurram Dastgir with regard to PIA.
On directives of the Supreme Court, the credentials of PIA employees were checked and 546 educational degrees were found as fake. “Degrees of some pilots were also found as fake as well as driving licences of taxi drivers,” he said adding the past governments recruited PIA employees including pilots having fake degrees.
Earlier, the PML-N member Khurram Dastgir said that whatever be reason behind the plane crash, the ultimate responsibility lies with the government and PIA management.
He demanded appointment of chairman of the standing committee on cabinet division so that chairman of PIA should be summoned before the committee. He said the House should be informed through the report to be presented in the House on June 22 as to who is responsible for plane crash while an action plan be given to avert such incidents in future.
Meanwhile, the PPP parliamentarian Dr Nafeesa Shah expressing dissatisfaction over the notification issued with regard to the NFC demanded of the government to withdraw the same.
She said the opposition was still ready to cooperate with the government despite its victimisation. “PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari has also offered to defer his politics provided Prime Minister Imran Khan acts as prime minister of the whole country,” she said.
Regretting attitude of the government in the present circumstances, the PPP member advised the federal minister Asad Umar not to compare loss of lives due to COVID-19 with deaths in road accidents.
Dr Nafeesa Shah observed that on one hand the nation was facing pandemic and on the other hand, the government was removing over 9,000 employees from the Steel Mills.
Mian Javed Latif regretted that it was the first government whose leaders were repeating the same allegations, which they levelled two years back while in the opposition.
He regretted statement of federal minister Shaikh Rashid Ahmad in which he said Nawaz Sharif was reluctant to conduct nuclear tests.
Referring to leaks, the PML-N member said the process of giving certificates of disloyalty with the country was still on. “It is regrettable to note the person who conducted nuclear tests is being declared as traitor while Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan was forced to apologise to the nation,” he said.
