25 September 2004	Saturday	09 Shaban 1425

ISLAMABAD, Sept 24: Senators on Friday again gave a tough time to the ministers during the question-hour session and accused them of giving incomplete replies and intentionally hiding information.

The ministers who faced the criticism on Friday were Minister for Housing and Works Syed Safwanullah, Minister for Petroleum and Natural Resources Amanullah Khan Jadoon, State Minister for Petroleum Naseer Mengal and Minister of State for Water and Power Amir Muqam.

Dr Ismail Buledi criticized Minister for Petroleum and Natural Resources Amanullah Khan Jadoon when the latter asked him to provide funds for early provision of gas to some villages.

The deputy chairman, Khalilur Rehman, asked the minister as to why he was asking for money from the senator when the ministry had development funds. "Why should he provide you money. Where are government funds," the chairman inquired.

Mr Jadoon said he had asked the member to provide funds if he wanted gas supply within weeks or months. The minister said under the normal procedure, the gas would only be provided when the gas company received the required funds and it could take a long time.

Mr Buledi said he was not expecting such a reply from Mr Jadoon and that he was not satisfied with the answer. At this point, the deputy chairman asked Mr Buledi to provide some funds as 'Qarz-i-Hasna' to the minister.

Mr Jadoon did not give reply to another question of Mr Buledi regarding reinstatement of the employees of Pakistan State Oil (PSO) on court orders during the last five years, and instead asked minister of state Naseer Mengal to respond to the supplementary questions.

Mr Mengal informed the house that 217 cases were filed by or against the PSO in different courts during the last five years and that the PSO spent Rs7.105 million on these cases. Moreover, the minister said 55 employees of the PSO were reinstated on court orders.

The minister had to face criticism on this reply as he was unable to respond to the supplementary questions of Mr Buledi and Dr Safdar Abbasi that why the PSO had spent so much amount on litigation when court decisions were going against the company. The minister closed the issue by stating that the ministry was holding an inquiry into the matter.

Similarly, both Mr Mengal and Mr Jadoon failed to satisfy Chaudhry Anwer Bhinder and Prof Khursheed Ahmed when they asked as to why the ministry was unable to fully utilize the allocated amount on various projects.

Mr Jadoon said the amount could not be spent because the contractors failed to complete work on various projects in the stipulated time. On this reply, the minister had to face several supplementary questions, and he again successfully closed the debate by stating that inquiry had been underway against the contractors.

Minister of State for Water and Power Amir Muqam invited trouble for himself when he announced that he had the details of the question whose answer was not given in the written form. Sanaullah Baloch had asked the question about the total generation and consumption of electricity in the country with province-wise break-up.