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| February 2, 2006 | Thursday | Muharram 3, 1427 |
Senate welcomes King Abdullah
ISLAMABAD Feb 1: The Senate on Wednesday welcomed Saudi King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz on his first visit to Pakistan as head of the kingdom. The proceedings, however, were affected by the delayed arrival of the king, leading to early adjournment of the session till Friday morning.
When the house started its proceedings after a delay of about one hour, there was not a single minister present. The lawmakers took serious notice of the absence of ministers during the question hour and postponed its proceedings for an hour for Maghrib prayers.
Due to delayed start and on account of interruptions of about three hours in the proceedings, it was decided to defer the debate on Balochistan situation till Friday and the question hour for that day till Monday.
The house was informed that ministers were stuck at the airport where they had gone to receive King Abdullah.
A lawmaker suggested to Foreign Minister Khurshid Mehmood Kasuri to take up the matter of delay and protocol problems with his Saudi counterpart so that no such lapses occurred in the future.
The opposition lawmakers criticised the ministers and said that only one of 72 ministers had turned up.
Those who spoke on th issue of ministers’ absence included Sanaullah Baloch, Prof Khurshid Ahmed, Dr Safdar Abbasi, Farhatullah Babar, Prof Ghafoor Ahmed, Hidayatullah Shah, Ishaq Dar and Kamran Murtaza from the opposition and Gulshan Saeed, Mohim Baloch, Pari Gul Agha, Kamil Ali Agha and Ch Anwar Bhinder from the treasury side.
Nisar A. Memon of the treasury, rising on a point of order, referred to two reports appearing in Dawn, one suggesting that Rs29 billion development funds allocated by the president in 2001 under Tameer-i-Pakistan programme for several projects in Karachi had either been slashed or underspent due to which many projects could not be completed.
In the other story, he said, Dawn had reported that Sindh would lose over Rs51 billion as a result of the amended NFC award announced by President General Pervez Musharraf.
Mr Memon denied the reports and said that a large number of development schemes launched with federal funds had been completed in various areas of Karachi. He, however, said if there was any doubt it should be cleared by the authorities concerned in Islamabad.
He said the government should come out with a detailed and comprehensive statement to clarify its position in terms of these news items.
A resolution, moved by Leader of the House Wasim Sajjad and adopted by the upper house, said: “This house warmly welcomes Khadim Al Haramain Al Sharifain King Abdullah Bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud on his first visit to Pakistan.
“The visit of his majesty symbolises strong brotherly relations between Pakistan and Saudi Arabia who were tied together by links of history, religion and culture.”
The resolution said that the house recognised that the government and people of Saudi Arabia had always given highest importance to the interests of Pakistan and its people.
The house, it said, was confident that the visit of his majesty would further the already strong relationship between the two countries.
Prof Sajid Mir of the PML-N raised the issue of the holding of Senate proceedings in the evening. He cited the example of United Kingdom’s House of Lords, rated as mother of parliaments, which held most of its session in the mornings and for four consecutive days starting from Monday.
Responding to the point, Mr Wasim Sajjad said that the timings for the upper house proceedings had been fixed after due consultation and keeping in mind engagements of ministers in their official businesses. He, however, said change in the timetable could be made if majority of the house so desired.
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