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| May 10, 2006 | Wednesday | Rabi-us-Sani 11, 1427 |
Senate looks for long lost Tablighees
ISLAMABAD, May 9: A Senate committee on Tuesday asked the Ministry of Foreign Affairs “to find some way” to recover 16 Pakistanis who went missing in Eritrea in 1993 while on a Tablighee mission. A press release of the Senate Functional Committee on Government Assurances said it issued the directive after Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Khusro Bakhtiar told the committee that the Eritrean government had denied any member of the mission was present in Eritrea and stated that they had crossed over to Sudan.
The Tablighee team had left Karachi for Ethiopia on July 15, 1993, the minister informed the committee which was reviewing the follow-up action taken by the government on the assurances it gave from time to time on the floor of the house.
On Tuesday it reviewed the government assurances relating to the Ministries of Foreign Affairs, Communications, Finance, Water and Power, Food and Agriculture and Petroleum and Natural Resources.
With regard to an assurance given by Minister for Water and Power Liaquat Ali Jatoi about the start of Sheikh Munda Thermal Power Station in Balochistan, the committee was informed that the proposal was duly considered and that it was not found feasible.
But the committee appreciated the government over-performing its assurance when it said that the National Highway Authority spent Rs205 million on repairing roads damaged by floods in Balochistan against the Rs184 million it had promised to the Senate it would.
As for the assurance regarding the supply of electricity to 85 villages of Sindh by June 30, 2006, the committee was told that 332 villages of Sindh had so far been electrified.
Tuesday’s session also considered the assurance given by the Minister for Food and Agriculture regarding the formulation of a mechanism for payment of sugarcane price according to recovery rate and quality by Pakistan Sugar Mills Association.
Minister for Food Sikandar Hayat Bosan told the committee that under the Sugar Control Act sugarcane prices were fixed on the basis of quality so as to encourage high recovery sugarcane varieties.
He said he was in touch with the governments of NWFP, Punjab and Sindh to incorporate necessary amendments in the act. He hoped that necessary changes would be made in the Sugar Control Act before the next crushing season.
About the assurance given on behalf of the Finance Minister on writing off of agriculture loans in earthquake affected areas, the committee was informed that loans amounting to Rs8.155 billion were outstanding against 89,000 borrowers belonging to the earthquake hit areas.
The state minister for finance informed the committee that the government had streamlined the system for distribution of cheques among the earthquake affected persons and data was being collected and classified regarding the amount of loans borrowed by the people.
—Our Reporter
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