The National Assembly on Tuesday passed a resolution congratulating the speaker and parliamentarians on the initiative of establishing the Parliamentary Task Force on sustainable development goals (SDGs) The resolution was moved by Minister for Information and Broadcasting Marriyum Aurangzeb. The resolution also pointed out that Pakistan’s parliament was the first one which had established the SDGs secretariat to oversee the implementation of development goals. The resolution also recommended the Parliamentary Task Force on SDGs be made permanent part of future parliaments. In another resolution moved by Malik Abrar, the House demanded that Ramazan 15 be observed as a national day of orphans. It said that there were 4.2 million orphan children in Pakistan and there was a dire need to create awareness about their rights. The resolution said that concrete steps should also be taken for proper upbringing of orphans and provision of better health and education facilities to them. Earlier, responding to a point of Asiya Nasir about the rights of minorities, the chair stated that the minorities are equal citizens of Pakistan. Other members on the occasion also denounced attacks on minority groups. They said that their rights should be protected as envisaged in the country’s constitution. Meanwhile, responding to a calling attention notice regarding investigation into Faizabad sit-in, Minister of State for Interior Talal Chaudhary said that 27 cases were registered into the incident and the cases were being heard in courts. Responding to another resolution, Minister of State for Finance Rana Muhamamad Afzal Khan said the federal cabinet would consider the matter regarding non-payment of honourarium equivalent to three basic pays for financial year 2017-18 to all employees of federal government. He said the cabinet could either approve or reject the proposal. Published in Daily Times, May 30th 2018.