06 June 2004	Sunday	17 Rabi-us-Saani 1425

ISLAMABAD, June 5: Minister for IT and Telecommunication Awais Ahmed Khan Leghari on Saturday reprimanded the senior officials of his ministry for the embarrassment he had to face in the National Assembly due to his absence during question hour on Friday.

"This is not acceptable at all and the time has come to take a stern action against those responsible," the minister was quoted as saying to his senior officers whom he had summoned at his office for a dressing-down.

The late arrival of the IT minister in the Lower House on Friday had perturbed the members that prompted Speaker Chaudhry Amir Hussain to direct the party's chief whip Nasrullah Dareshak to inform Prime Minister Mir Zafarullah Jamali about the lax attitude of the ministers towards their responsibility.

"We are responsible before the National Assembly and, therefore, we need to be careful," the minister told his staff.

Awais Leghari was supposed to be present during the first hour of the House to respond to the queries of the members about his ministry. However, he entered the House at the last leg of the question-hour session, oblivious of the fact that queries about his ministry remained unanswered in his absence because nobody even the parliamentary secretary for telecommunication was available to reply to the questions.

Situation worsened when even Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed, who was asked by the speaker to reply on behalf of the telecommunication minister, said that he was not briefed on the question, therefore, he was not in a position to answer the questions.

Meanwhile, the ministry spokesman when asked as to why the telecommunication minister Awais Leghari could not make up on Friday, he explained that the minister was available in his chambers in the parliamentary building on Friday and was waiting for a detailed answer from the Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited (PTCL) about a question on the PTCL's policy over further cutting its tariff.