ISLAMABAD, Sept 24: Deputy Chairman Senate Khalilur Rehman on Wednesday reprimanded the foreign ministry for not assigning anyone in the absence of the foreign minister to answer questions relating to the ministry in the upper house.

The deputy chief has taken strong notice of the fact that nobody was there to answer queries about the appointment of ambassadors in Pakistani missions abroad.

On the request of MQM Senator Babar Ghori, the deputy chairman deferred his questions relating to the foreign ministry to be taken again in the presence of the foreign minister.

He also deferred another question about the steps to ensure quick delivery of vehicles by the local manufacturers of Toyota, Honda and Suzuki cars against advance payments made by their customers.

Though Commerce Minister Humayun Akhtar was ready to answer on behalf of the industries minister, Senator Kamil Ali Agha requested the chair to defer the question until another day because he did not want to embarrass the commerce minister since he said supplementary questions would create bitterness in the house.

Khalilur Rehman informed the senators that letters had been written to all the ministries with a direction to take questions of the members seriously and give complete reply to them. Some members have been protesting against the short answers of their questions, saying that the ministries were considering these questions “tissue papers”.

Later, during the question hour, Humayun Akhtar informed that 478 industrial units were closed down in the NWFP during the last five years after incentive packages were withdrawn from Gadoon and Hattar industrial estates. The closure rendered 18,395 workers jobless, he added.

Out of these 478 units, 166 industrial units were closed down because of over capacity and price differentials, 54 units producing silk yarn because of putting silk in the negative list in the Afghan transit trade and 110 units became redundant due to lack of basic marketing strategies.

However the State Bank of Pakistan has come out with several proposals for the revival of these units.

Replying to a supplementary question, the minister said the agreement with the international financial institutions had stopped the government from offering incentive packages on regional basis. But the government was trying to help these units switch to other businesses like marble, jewellry production, gems, fruits and vegetable.

Answering another question, Federal Minister for Food and Agriculture Sardar Yar Muhammad Rind said the government was considering increase in the support price of wheat and development projects for storage and packaging of dates in the Makran division.

The minister informed the house while answering a query that Rs2.9 billion was spent during 1999 to 2002 in the agriculture sector against a budgetary allocations of Rs3.63 billion.

Meanwhile, in a written statement, the upper house was told that 57 Pakistanis, who were arrested from Afghanistan were, presently held at the US Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay.

A four-member delegation comprising representatives of the foreign ministry, interior division and the ISI (inter services intelligence) visited Guantanamo Bay in August 2002 to interview the detainees claiming to be Pakistanis.

About the steps to check the progress of 450MW Baghliar Hydro electric plant phase-I and Kishan Ganga Hydropower project in the held Kashmir, the house was informed that Pakistan had raised objections on the construction of Baghliar plant being constructed on River Chenab because the project did not meet the criteria laid down in the Indus Water Treaty.

The house was also informed that the government was not considering any plan to open Khokhera Par border in Sindh and there was also no arrangement to set up an Indian consulate in Karachi or a Pakistani Consulate in Mumbai (India).