ISLAMABAD, Dec 30: People’s Party Parliamentarians (PPP) Senator Farhatullah Babar on Friday asked Senate Chairman Mohammadmian Soomro to refer a motion to the privilege committee against education minister for “giving a wrong statement” on the floor of the House on the Fauji Foundation compensation issue.

Speaking on a point of order, Senator Babar said that two contradictory statements had been made on the floor of the House, one by the education minister and the other by the minister of state for finance, on the issue.

He said that the education minister protected Fauji Foundation from criticism by giving a wrong statement in the upper house.

Senator Babar said that during a Senate debate on earthquake on November 22, he had proposed that the Rs5 billion compensation paid to the Fauji Foundation from the public funds be withdrawn and diverted to the reconstruction work.

He said the education minister had denied that the Fauji Foundation had ever been compensated by the government.

Mr Babar also quoted excerpts from the Senate record of the minister’s speech in which he had said, “they (Fauji Foundation) have been given no money. Again this is not correct. If at all, it was only a guarantee given to the Army Welfare Trust and not to Fauji Foundation.”

Senator Babar said that subsequently he had asked a question in the Senate whether the government had compensated some fertilizer companies for losses in 1989 and if so the names of the companies and the amount paid to them be brought to the upper house.

He then read out from the reply to the question by the Minister of State for Finance Umar Ayub Khan on Thursday (Dec 28) that said, “Yes. The government of Pakistan agreed to compensate for the losses incurred by the Fauji Jordan Fertilizer Company, renamed as Fauji Fertilizer Bin Qasim Ltd in the wake of non-implementation of the provisions of Fertilizer Policy 1989.

The total amount of Rs5 billion was agreed to be disbursed to the Company over a period of seven years starting from the year 2002.”

Senator Babar said the finance minister’s reply had confirmed that the Fauji Foundation was the only fertilizer company that had thus been given compensation. He said the government claimed that the Fauji Foundation was a “private entity” and yet had paid Rs5 billion to it as compensation.

He demanded that the compensation be withdrawn and diverted to relief and reconstruction work in earthquake affected areas.

He said that “misstatement” by the education minister that prevented the parliament from probing the use of public funds to compensate a so-called private company, was a serious breach of privilege and asked the chairman to refer the matter to the privileges committee.