Senate told no change made in Pak delegation

ISLAMABAD State Minister for Foreign Affairs, Malik Amad Khan on Wednesday said that the negotiations with India would not be restricted to a certain problem but all bilateral issues would come under discussion. He further said that Pakistan would take tough and principled stance over all the issues to be discussed during the talks. Responding to a point of order raised by Senator Wasim Sajjad, the Sate Minister also clarified that no change had been made in the delegation visiting India for the secretary-level talks. He said the news item pertaining to the issue was absolutely baseless, adding that India had also issued clarification regarding the news item. The delegation visiting India is the same which was finalised some ten days ago, the State Minister said. He added that there was no fixed agenda for the talks. During the Question Hour Session, Minister for Defence, Chaudhry Ahmad Mukhtar informed that the PIA had earned nothing during the last five years. He said the Airline was in doldrums and the Government had no money to rehabilitate it. He also informed that the Privatisation Commission was working to privatise the PIA but no party had so far shown interest in buying the Airline due to its precarious position. He, however, said that the Government was making efforts to make the PIA a profitable organisation and had brought about sufficient decrease in its losses. We are developing an engineering department in the PIA for overhauling of aeroplanes to save $ 12-13 million per annum, Chaudhry said. Minister for Railways, Ghulam Ahmad Bilour, in response to a supplementary question, told the House that Pakistan Railways was running on 150 years old track with decades old locomotives so there could be no question about introduction of bullet trains in the country. He also informed that the highest speed of trains in the country was 110 kilometres per hour while the lowest was 30 kilometres per hour. He said there was no money for upgrading the Railways. On a supplementary question, Senator Ghulam Ali drew attention of the Minister for Information, Qamar-ul-Zaman Kaira towards the issue that 25 class-IV employees having domiciles of Sindh and Punjab provinces had been appointed in the PTV Peshawar Station a couple of months ago and later transferred to other places. The Minister assured that he would carry out probe into the matter. The Interior Ministry informed that as many as 9397 cases of violence against women had been registered since January 2008 including the 6955 cases in Punjab province alone. Senator Jamal Leghari staged walk out, as Chairman Senate ruled out his adjournment motion regarding cutting down Punjabs share in the waters of Indus River. Senator Jamal Leghari said that the Chief Minister Punjab had surrendered Southern Punjabs share of water to Sindh for his personal popularity. Senator Ishaq Dar said that the Senator should have respected the Chairmans ruling while Senator Ilyas Bilour commented that people of Southern Punjab should strive for a separate province. Responding to a calling attention notice moved by Senator Ilyas Bilour, Minister for Defence Chaudhry Ahmad Mukhtar informed the House that a board of enquiry had been constituted under the leadership of Air Vice Marshal Najmul Hassan to probe into the matter pertaining to boarding of a person on a PIA flight without observing required formalities. The Chairman Senate also ruled out a calling attention notice forwarded by Senator Haji Ghulam Ali regarding irregularities during Haj-2009. Senator Jamal Leghari on a point of order said that the parliamentarians quota in licences of arms of prohibited bores should be revived, saying the parliamentarians should not be deprived of their rights due to the misdeeds of the officials of the Ministry of Interior. JUI-F senators staged walk out over raids against religious seminaries. Senator Prof Ibrahim regretted that the Army had imposed curfew in the Mingora despite announcement of the Army Chief that the operation was over and the civilian authorities could take control of the area. He said security personal used to enter into houses in Mingora and took out men for identification parade. Senator Hamayun Mandokhel stressed the Government to launch protest with the Iranian Government over charges they used to level against Pakistan in connection with presence of Jundallahs chief Abdol Malek Rigi in Pakistan. He said Rigi had confessed that the US was using him for interfering in Iran. The country would also be using other people for interfering into Pakistan, he feared. Senator Tahir Hussain Mashhadi regretted that the House was not performing its fundamental duty of legislation due to the absence of the ministers. He said the practice embarrassed the senators especially coalition partners.