May 21, 2006	Sunday	Rabi-us-Sani 22, 1427

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ISLAMABAD, May 20: A ruling party senator from Punjab on Friday accused the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC) of dumping nuclear waste in a village near Dera Ghazi Khan without observing international safety standards, causing many deaths in the area.

Speaking on a point of order in the Senate, Sardar Jamal Khan Leghari of the Pakistan Muslim League said the PAEC had been mining uranium in the village for 25 years for one of its facilities near D. G. Khan and dumping the nuclear waste in the open.

He said the matter was of serious nature and it should be referred either to the standing committee on defence or environment. He said the dumping of the nuclear waste was affecting poor people from Baloch and Leghari tribes living in the area, several of whom had already died.

Only Federal Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Dr Sher Afgan and his Minister of State Kamil Ali Agha were present in the house when Mr Leghari raised the issue at the last moments of the session, but none of them bothered to speak on the matter.

Later, talking to journalists, Mr Leghari said livestock mortality and diseases among people living in the Baghalchur village near D. G. Khan were on the rise due to uranium mining in the area. He said the people of the village working as mine labourers had adverse effects on their health. He claimed that life expectancy in the village had reduced to 40 years.

Mr Leghari said the issue came to light when few years back, a large number of cattle died under mysterious circumstances. Moreover, he claimed, physical deformities had also been noticed among villagers. He said the number of people with weak eyesight and poor hearing capabilities had increased manifold in the area.

Replying to a question, he said some villagers had taken the matter to the Supreme Court but the court had decided to keep the proceedings secret.

After publication of such reports in a section of the press, PAEC authorities had claimed that the waste was being dumped underground in tunnels and there had been no radioactive effects of it on the area population and its environs.