March, 11 2005	Friday	29 Muharram 1426

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ISLAMABAD, March 10: The government told the National Assembly on Thursday heavy rains had helped the country’s power houses to generate 2,000 megawatts of surplus electricity besides helping cotton and wheat crops.

Water and Power Minister Liaquat Ali Jatoi, speaking on a call-attention notice from three members of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League about the danger of floods, acknowledged the rains had caused damages but said they also removed an acute shortage of water that he feared would have been to the extent of 56 per cent this year.

“Today we have three million acre feet of water in our reservoirs compared to almost nothing (at this time) last year,” he said.

The minister said the cotton crop had been very good and the government expected a bumper wheat crop as well because of rains.

“With the grace of God, we now produce 2,000mw of surplus electricity,” he said.

Furthermore, the minister said, new investment in the field would lead to an additional generation of 3,500mw of electricity.

The call-attention notice of PML members Sardar Bahadur Ahmed Khan Sihar, Rain Mansab Ali Khan and Mrs Shehnaz Rafi had drawn the minister’s attention to what they called apprehension of floods in rivers, especially in the Indus, “due to excessive snowfall and expected rains”.

Mr Jatoi said there was no immediate danger of floods but the government was preparing to meet such an eventuality.

“We are already holding meetings ... and we are fully prepared,” he said.

WALKOUT: Opposition walkouts twice broke the quorum in the National Assembly on Thursday, leaving an undisciplined ruling coalition helpless and blocking the passage of a government bill for the second day.

The brief Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (Amendment) Bill was taken up on Wednesday but the government failed to get it through even on the second day as proceedings were disrupted during the second and third readings of the legislation for lack of quorum that the treasury benches failed to make because many of their members were absent.

A provoked Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA) appeared to have made the house a hostage, threatening to walk out and break the quorum unless their members were allowed to make speeches.

The first MMA walkout came during the second reading of the bill when deputy speaker Sardar Mohammad Yaqub cut short a long speech by an MMA, Maulana Mohammad Khan Sherani, about the peace- seeking teachings of Islam after Kunwar Khalid Yunus of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) blamed what he called exploitation of Islam for the spread of terrorism.

MMA member Hafiz Hussain Ahmed had cited the oil wealth of the Middle East at the centre of perceived terrorism.

The People’s Party Parliamentarians (PPP) did not appear to be joining the walkout but most of their members went out of the house along with some senior ruling coalition members to persuade the MMA to come back.

Maulana Sherani completed his longish speech after the MMA ended its walkout before his alliance forced an unusual break for Isha prayers when Hafiz Hussain Ahmed refused to complete his speech on a proposed amendment and threatened his colleagues would leave the house to break the quorum again if the proceedings were not immediately suspended.

The assembly allows brief breaks for Asr and Maghreb prayers but the proceedings usually continue after the muezzin’s call for Isha prayers, which can be offered any time at night before the pre-dawn Fajar prayers.

Even PPP members seemed frustrated by the chair’s acquiescence, some of them raising up their hands in surprise amid some shouts of “blackmail” from treasury benches.

Shortly after the prayer recess and after two of them had spoken on their amendments, MMA members again broke the quorum by sneaking out of the house just as Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Mohammad Raza Hayat Harraj was replying to opposition criticism before moving for a final vote, forcing the chair to adjourn the house until 10am on Friday.

The bill seeks to amend the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority Ordinance 2002 to transfer powers to determine well-head price from the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority to the government and to remove the time-limit of two years for the removal of difficulties in the implementation of the ordinance.