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| November 24, 2005 | Thursday | Shawwal 21, 1426 |
Steps taken to protect gas ferms’ assets
ISLAMABAD, Nov 23: Minister of State for Petroleum and Natural Resources Mohammad Nasir Mengal on Wednesday informed the Senate that 47 incidents of gas pipeline damage occurred in Balochistan in the last four years. In a written reply to a question of Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA) Senator Ismail Buledi, the minister told the house that the government had provided the services of Frontier Constabulary, Punjab Rangers, levies and police to the gas companies to protect their assets.
The minister said that the gas companies had also been allowed to engage “casual chowkidars/Askari guards at vulnerable points.”
A treasury senator Muhim Khan Baloch criticized heavy deployment of forces for the protection of gas installations. He said the people of the province could themselves protect the installations if they were given their due rights.
Sanaullah Baloch of the Balochistan National Party (BNP) accused the federal government of exploiting the constitution and forcing the people to take law into their hands. He said when there would be exploitation of the constitution then the people would be forced to fight a legal battle and some of them started terrorist activities. “So far, 47 incidents have been reported but tomorrow, there will be 147 such incidents,” he said.
Mr Baloch said that the gas companies should provide employment to the people of Balochistan and Sindh in accordance with the gas production ratio.
The minister said that the issues of Balochistan were discussed in the parliamentary committee and hopefully the issues would be resolved with the implementation of the recommendations of the committee.
Meanwhile, the opposition senators challenged the figures provided by the government about the losses suffered by the people in the October 8 earthquake and asked the chairman to refer the matter to a committee.
In a written reply to a question of ruling party senator Gulshan Saeed, Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Dr Sher Afgan told the House that the government had already paid Rs3.077 billion compensation to the heirs of 30,776 persons killed in the earthquake. He said Rs1.461 billion and Rs1.616 billion compensation had been paid to the heirs of 14,616 deceased persons belonging to Azad Kashmir and 16,160 belonging to the NWFP, respectively.
The minister said that the government had paid Rs94.25 million compensation to a total of 3,944 injured persons. He said Rs15.420 million had been distributed among 661 injured people of Azad Kashmir and Rs78.830 million to 3,283 injured persons in the NWFP. The minister said that 29,360 people had died in NWFP and 43,000 in Azad Kashmir in the earthquake.
Similarly, he said, the government had already given Rs3.102.31 billion as compensation for the 124,092 demolished houses in the earthquake-affected areas. Out of this, he said, Rs2.149.18 billion had been given to 85,967 people of Azad Kashmir and Rs953.125 million to 38,125 people of the NWFP.
Rehmatullah Kakar of the MMA said that the minister had given wrong figures and he could prove this with the help of official documents.
He asked the chairman to give a ruling on the matter and refer it to the committee concerned.
PML-N Senator Ishaq Dar said that the minister had stated that 72,360 people had died in the earthquake while the government had already declared the official figures of over 78,000. He regretted that so far the government had provided compensation to only very few people even after more than one month.
Dr Mohammad Saad said that the government was giving different figures at different places. He said that in the recently-held Donors Conference the government showed very high losses while in the Senate, it was giving a very low figure.
Dr Sher Afgan admitted that the process was slow but said it was because of the fact that the government wanted to pay the compensation to the genuine victims of the earthquake. He, however, said that he would ask the authorities concerned to expedite process.
The opposition senators again alleged that the minister was giving wrong figures and the matter be referred to the committee. Senate Chairman Mohammadmian Soomro directed the minister to give the updated data in the session on Thursday.
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