Confused Minister becomes laughingstock

ISLAMABAD State Minister for Education Ghulam Farid Kathia on Wednesday faced great embarrassment during the Question Hour in the Senate, as the Senators made full fun of his confusion and unawareness about his Ministry. The Senators, especially those belonging to Balochistan, were first enraged to find that the Minister did not even know the name of the only women university in Balochistan. Actually, Senator Surayya Amiruddin in a supplementary question protested over the fact that the only women university in Balochistan had been established in a building formerly used as TB sanatorium. The Minister replied that no women university in Balochistan was being set up in sanatorium to which Balochistans Senators reacted in chorus that the Minister knew nothing about his Ministry, as Senator Surayya said that the said university was not being set up but had been set up in the sanatorium. Balochistans Senators then demanded of the Minister to tell the name of the said women university but he failed to do so. Later, the members burst into laughter when totally confused Minister went on to tell about the status of the women universities being set up in the country in response to Senator Prof Ibrahims question regarding the affairs of already established women universities in the country. The situation reached the climax when Senator Hafiz Rasheed put forth a funny question saying that there were five universities in FATA for men and ten universities for women, asking that the Minister should inform the House where the said universities were located. Oh no, there are only six universities, the Minister said in confusion and all this once again made the Senators to burst into laughter. The Chairman Senate Farooq H Naek, however, came to save the day for the Minister, asking the Senators to switch over to the next question, soon after which the Minister left the House. State Minister for Law and Justice Mehreen Anwar Raja informed the House that there were as many as 75 posts of judges vacant in the higher judiciary including two vacancies in the Supreme Court. The Ministry of Human Rights informed the House that during the year 2009, 7,953 cases of human rights violations had been registered in the country and out of these 4,615 cases were registered only in Punjab.