Daily Times

The opposition and even ruling party member criticised the government during a session of the National Assembly on Wednesday for not taking adequate measures against locust attack, petrol crisis, surging wheat prices and the coronavirus spread across country.

The opposition members also raised the question of privatization of Pakistan Steel Mills and reminded Federal Minister for Planning Asad Umar to honour his promise of not letting the PSM workers alone. The PPP members raised placards inside the Lower House, demanding Asad Umar to resign over the PSM issue as he had promised to do so. National Assembly Deputy Speaker Qasim Suri, however, asked PPP MNA Rafiullah not to distribute pamphlets in the House.

At the beginning of the session, PPP MNA Naveed Qamar said that the lawmakers who didn’t undergo coronavirus test will be denied entry in the session. He said that the members tested coronavirus positive will not attend the session. Only 86 members can attend the budget session and every party in the House has been informed about the number of lawmakers from that party who will attend the session, he said.

Minister for Communications Murad Saeed told the Lower House that the decision of privatizing PSM was taken in Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) tenure. He regretted that the previous governments left all the state-owned enterprises including Pakistan Steel Mills, Pakistan International Airlines and Pakistan Railways into losses. “We are reforming these entities and its benefit will reach the masses,” he added.

Federal Minister for Aviation Ghulam Sarwar Khan said that report of PIA plane crash will be presented in the National Assembly on June 22. The inquiry will be made credible by including the details of the voice and data recorders which were decoded and received by the PIA, he said. He said that damages caused by crash of flight PK-8303 were being assessed. He said that identifying victims was a difficult process but 95 out of 97 bodies have been identified so far. He further said that families of victims were given Rs 1 million each, however some families refused to accept the money.

The minister claimed that 546 people holding fake degrees were hired in the PIA due to political pressure and that even pilots were involved in fake licenses. He said that government reduced PIA deficit of Rs 422 billion to only Rs 1 billion. The current deficit of Rs 6 billion is due to coronavirus pandemic, he clarified.

Adviser on Parliamentary Affairs Babar Awan laid before the National Assembly the Tax Laws (Amendment) Ordinance 2020. Four bills were also laid by the adviser on parliamentary affairs. These included: 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 house then resumed discussion on the challenge posed by locusts. The members said the locusts had 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 had become a more serious issue than Covid-19 and the affected districts should be cleared through aerial sprays. Those who spoke on the issue included Khawaja Sheraz Mahmood, Ghulam Mustafa Shah and Sabir Hussain Qaimkhani.

PPP’s Nafisa Shah claimed that Asif Ali Zardari was more powerful president because before completing his tenure, he transferred all powers to the parliament. She regretted that the current president is doing nothing except issuing ordinance at midnight.