March 30, 2006	Thursday	Safar 29, 1427

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ISLAMABAD, March 29: The opposition members belonging to the Alliance for the Restoration of Democracy (ARD) have expressed concern over the recent increase in the prices of cement and decided to raise the issue in the forthcoming National Assembly session.

The alliance’s parliamentary secretary Izhar Amrohvi told Dawn on Wednesday that 13 members of the People’s Party Parliamentarians (PPP) and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) had submitted an adjournment motion on the issue.

The motion has been submitted on the basis of news reports that consumers were paying Rs50 more on a 50-kilogramme cement bag while manufacturers and dealers were holding each other responsible for the hike, he said.

According to the reports, he said, there were chances that people, who had booked flats and bungalows might have to pay more to builders and contractors due to escalation in the cement prices.

Mr Amrohvi said that earlier the government had failed to keep a check on prices of daily use items, specially sugar and milk. He said that there seemed to be no control of the government over big industrialists who were fixing prices of their products on their own.

According to Mr Amrohvi, the adjournment motion has been signed by Syed Nayyar Hussain Bokhari, Raja Pervez Ashraf, Naheed Khan, Syed Naveed Qamar, Syed Khurshid Shah, Dr Fehmida Mirza, Fauzia Habib, Chaudhry Qamaruz Zaman Kaira, Chaudhry Manzoor Ahmed and Chaudhry Aitzaz Ahsan of the PPP and Khwaja Mohammad Asif, Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan and Tehmina Daultana of the PML-N.

Similarly, Mr Amrohvi said that the ARD members had also submitted an adjournment motion to the lower house secretariat seeking a discussion on the continued sale of a banned medicine.

The motion, signed by 12 opposition members, states: “The federal government has failed to implement its decision regarding banning pain-killer ‘Novalgin’ containing ‘metamizole’. All chemists are still in the dark about the official order as Novalgin in the shape of tablets, syrup, injections and drops is still being sold. The Pakistan Chemists Retailers Association chairman Ishaq Meo has reportedly stated that the association had not been informed so far about the decision in writing and that he himself learnt about it (ban) through media reports.

“According to an order of the Drug Registration Board, a complete ban on the import, manufacture and sale of all metamizole-containing products had been placed. The matter is of very serious nature and needs discussion on the floor of the house adjourning the normal proceedings,” says the motion.

This motion has been signed by Nayyar Bokhari, Chaudhry Aitzaz Ahsan, Dr Fehmida Mirza, Sherry Rehman, Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, Pervez Malik, Fauzia Wahab, Naveed Qamar, Naheed Khan, Khwaja Asif, Raja Pervez Ashraf and Zulfiqar Gondal.

Meanwhile, a source told Dawn that the next session of the National Assembly was expected to be convened in the first week of April.