ISLAMABAD - The government Thursday failed to satisfy the Senate about the causes and investigations conducted so far into recent incidents of terrorism in the country that have sent shocking waves among the masses.

As State Minister for Interior Baleegur Rehman concluded his briefing in the house on the recent wave of terrorism, Chairman Senate Mian Raza Rabbani, while showing his utter disappointment, said that the briefing contained nothing new.

The minister in his briefing to the house only gave the number of causalities and the injured in the incidents of terrorism in Lahore, Peshawar and Mohamed Agency what he said authentic information about the human losses.

"What ever you have said, all had already been broadcast by the media," Chairman Senate told the state minister. He said that if the government did not want to make certain things public, he could turn the sitting into in-camera. However, the minister was of the view that the investigations into these incidents were underway and nothing could be divulged at this point until a conclusion could be reached. "All of a sudden an eruption of acts (of terrorism) has taken place and what art reasons and who are behind it," Rabbani said.  He added that it looked that the government did not want to share any thing with the parliament ignoring the fact that the parliament was their voice in the fight against terrorism.

Later, the chair asked the state minister to give an in-camera briefing to the house about the recent wave of terrorism today (Friday) and also sought an explanation from the Ministry of Interior about a video of militant organization Jamaatul Ahrar (JuA), a splinter group of TTP, that has gone viral on the social media. JuA in the video claimed the responsibility of the Lahore Charing Cross terrorist attack and asked for waging a war against the state of Pakistan.

Dr Jahenzeb Jamalidi on a point of public concern suggested that the house should open a debate on the foreign policy related to terrorism through Whole Committee of the House and give its recommendations to the government.

PPP Senator Taj Haider on a point of public concern objected to the government's plans to outsource the airports of the country and said that the decision would put the security of the airports as well as country at stake. "The government misled the house, the other day, while saying the airports were not being outsourced," he said while showing the piece of advertisement in this regard. He said that the new term of outsourcing was being used for privatisation and the institutions were being given in the hands of foreign companies. There is no logic to outsource Civil Aviation Authority while it earned profit amounting to Rs32 billion last year. "The whole system of radars and security would be outsourced including operations and management of the airports," he said adding that the step would put the security of the airports at stake. He also said that this would have to be kept in mind that some airports were situated inside the premises of airbases.

Chairman Senate referred the matter to the Senate Cabinet Committee saying that this was a serious matter and asked to report back within one month.

The house adopted a report of Senate Functional Committee on Devolution regarding the government's decision to transfer the control of regulatory bodies from cabinet division to the line ministries amid opposition of the lawmakers of the ruling PML-N. The committee in its report suggested the placement of all regulatory bodies under Council of Common Interests (CCI), a recommendation that was opposed by PML-N Senator Saud Majeed. "CCI has no capacity to handle the regulatory bodies and the decision would be wrong as earlier Cabinet Division had no capacity to control these bodies," he said giving the reason of the government's decision.

The house also adopted the report of the Standing Committee on Finance on the privatisation of Heavy Electrical Complex (HEC) and the report also faced position from the ruling party lawmakers.  The report recommended to halt the privatisation process of HEC terming the early procedure adopted for its prioritisation was shady. "It will not be good message for the international community to halt the privatisation process," said Senator Saud Majeed. While PPP Senator Saeed Ghani said it was clear case of wrong doings.

Responding a call attention notice about non-payment of salaries to the immigration and passport officers posted at various Pakistani missions abroad, State Minister for Interior Baleegur Rehman said these employees were working under the Machine Readable Passport Project whose budget did not meet the required expenditures as the projected was conceived long ago.  "Now we have got a supplementary grant of Rs137.98 million and the issue would be resolved within a month, he said. He said that these employees were not enjoining all perks and privileges as received by other employees of missions because they were on contract. Now the government has decided to regularise them, he said.