June 15, 2007	Friday	Jamadi-ul-Awwal 29, 1428

ISLAMABAD, June 14: Opposition senators questioned the government on why the menace of human smuggling was not being controlled and requisitioned a meeting of the Senate’s Standing Committee on Labour, Manpower and Overseas Pakistanis to discuss the issue.

The requisition was filed on Wednesday with the office of Senate Chairman and the meeting is likely to be held before June 25.

The opposition senators who filed the requisition —Enwer Baig, Ilyas Bilor, Raza Muhammad Raza and Khalid Jan— have asked the interior ministry for its failure to publish names, addresses and telephone numbers of those involved in smuggling of humans.

However, the Federal Investigation Agency’s (FIA’s) additional director general, Muhammad Yasin, during the last meeting of the Senate’s standing committee on labour, held on March 20, had assured that the list would be published in newspapers.

The opposition senators have also demanded that the Overseas Pakistanis Foundation should appear before the committee and explain what action and remedial measures taken on the findings by the sub-committee, headed by Senator Baig, Senator Fauzia Fakr Zaman and Senator Prof M Saeed Siddique on the housing schemes of the OPF, located in Islamabad launched for overseas Pakistanis.