JAVAID-UR-RAHMAN and INAMULLAH KHATTAK
ISLAMABAD - The National Assembly (NA) on Thursday witnessed uproar when two erstwhile coalition partners (MQM and PPP) indulged in a severe verbal brawl and strongly criticised each other for their mismanagement to resolve the issues of the masses.
Both the former coalition partners expressed gratitude to the President for addressing joint session of the Parliament on June 2. The major opposition party (PPP) even said that MQM was trying to be part of the PML-N government, but all their attempts were still fruitless. “MQM always keeps on changing its loyalties as it does what suits it,” said PPP’s senior lawmaker, Abdus Sattar Bachani.
Bachani, responding to MQM’s attack over the Thar issue, termed Muttahida an opportunist political force in the country. “Why is MQM not leaving the
Sindh governorship,” he said, triggering rumpus in the house as MQM lawmakers stood on their seats, asking the chair to stop him from leveling allegations against them. Some of PPP lawmakers also followed the suit, but the chair timely intervened and controlled the situation.
Earlier, MQM lawmaker Asif Hasnain strongly criticised the Sindh government for their negligence in Thar and other related matters. He demanded population census and holding of local government elections on priority basis. He also criticised the performance of the Sindh government in different fields.
A lawmaker from Fata, Shah Jee Gul Afridi, on his turn, criticised the media for not properly highlighting the internally displaced persons (IDPs) of North Waziristan. “The media has highlighted the issues of floods and earthquakes in the past, but no proper attention was paid to this matter,” he added.
Muhammad Jamal-ud-Din also demanded the government solve the problems of the IDPs of North Waziristan, who were living a miserable life in camps. He said distribution of laptops in the camps would not serve the real purpose. “They need shelter, food, proper arrangement for winter etc,” he said, asking the government to allow them to go back to their areas which had been cleared by the army.
The house, with a thin presence of lawmakers from both sides of the aisle, saw an emotional speech of Shahabuddin from Bajaur, who criticised both the provincial and the federal government for non-cooperation.
“I will prefer to stage a walkout as no FIR has so far been registered against the accused persons,” he said, asking the government to take interest in this important matter.
MQM’s Nabeel Gabol, on a point of order, said it was a provincial matter and proper investigation was required to ascertain the real reasons behind it.
However, PPP’s Ejaz Jakhrani assured the house that an FIR would be registered to ascertain the real reasons behind this incident. “There is no need to politicise the matter,” he added.
Responding to a calling attention notice about failure of the estate office to get the government residences vacated, Parliamentary Secretary Syed Sajid Mehdi said stay orders by the courts were major hurdles in this regard. “We are allotting government accommodations following the seniority list,” he added.
To another calling attention notice, Parliamentary Secretary for Petroleum and Natural Resources Shahzadi Umerzadi said that gas load management was being carried out due to shortfall of 2,000 mmcft per day. “It is a gas load management and not gas shortage or loadshedding,” she added. The house also expressed grief over the sad demise of Australian Cricketer Phillip Hughes and offered condolences with his family.
ISLAMABAD - A total of 12,280 people were killed across Pakistan from January 2008 till date and 16,916 cases were registered under the anti-terrorism act during the said period but only 1,852 persons were convicted. Minister for Interior and Narcotics Control Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan informed the National Assembly in a written reply to a question that death toll in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa remained the highest as 4,204 persons lost lives in terror incidents injuring over 10,911. The province-wise break-up of the persons killed and injured shows that 1,043 people were killed and 3,353 are injured in Punjab; 681 people were killed and 2559 injured in Sindh and 1759 killed and 5729 injured in Balochistan.
From 2008 till to date, a total of 4346 people are killed and 8644 injured in Federally Administrated Tribal Areas; 15 people are killed and 69 injured in Azad Jammu and Kashmir; 165 killed and 482 injured in Islamabad and 67 people are killed and 92 injured in Gilgit Baltistan. In all these terror attacks, a total of 16916 cases were registered across Pakistan under the anti terrorism act but only 1852 persons were convicted for their crime.
A break-up of the cases registered under anti terrorism act shows that a total of 4267 cases were registered in Punjab, 6554 in Sindh, 3080 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 2350 in Balochistan, 34 in Islamabad, 627 in Gilgit-Baltistan and 04 in Azad Jammu and Kashmir. A total of 895 persons were convicted in Punjab, 590 in Sindh, 97 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 51 in Balochistan and 219 in Gilgit-Baltistan while no person was convicted in Islamabad and Azad Jammu and Kashmir.
To another question asked by MNA Parveen Maqsood Bhatti, the minister said that a total of 10,486 foreign nationals were arrested during the period from January 2008 to June 30, 2012.
The lower house was also informed that a total of 11,511 foreigners were deported from Pakistan during the said period.
Meanwhile, Minister for Finance, Revenue, Economic Affairs, Statistics and Privatisation Ishaq Dar informed the House in a written reply to a question that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) report issued in July 2014 projected State Bank of Pakistan's foreign exchange reserves at 13.3 billion dollars at the end of current financial year 2014-15, showing an increase of about 4 billion dollars in the foreign exchange reserves.
The government also expects major inflows during 2014-15 as 9329 million dollars from multilateral and bilateral inflows, 1,000 million dollars Euro/Sukuk bond, 1,400 million dollars coalition support fund, 1750 million dollars under the head of others that include privatisation and 3G licenses and 934 million dollars in net receipts from the International Monetary Fund (IMF).