ISLAMABAD, April 18: Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani said in the National Assembly on Friday that his government was working on a housing policy under which all federal government employees would get a house after retirement.

“The provincial governments will follow the same policy,” he said in reply to a question.

“The government has set in motion a housing policy under which on completion of 10 years in service, all government servants will be entitled to become owners of a house when they reach superannuation age”.

Mr Gilani became the first prime minister to reply to a question in the National Assembly during the question hour.

The premier’s absence from the National Assembly was noticed by the print media on Thursday and much was made of it.

Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Sherry Rahman termed the event historic and announced the start of the prime minister’s special question hour from the next assembly session.

About the promotion of tourism, the prime minister said that the 2005 earthquake had devastated hubs of tourism in Pakistan.

“Once these areas are rehabilitated and law and order restored, Swat, Naran and Kaghan valleys, adjoining districts and the Northern Areas will attract foreign tourists in great numbers,” he said.

The government has decided to encourage foreign visitors to visit Pakistan.

Earlier, the minister in-charge for Tourism, Raja Pervez Ashraf, informed the assembly that 2.562 million foreign tourists had visited Pakistan during 2005-07, contributing $720 million to the country’s foreign exchange reserves.

He said that besides participating in six international tourism exhibitions, Pakistan had launched an extensive media campaign to promote the country’s tourism potential.

UNIFORM SYLLABUS: Federal Minister for Education Ahsan Iqbal informed the house that he had set a three-year target to introduce a uniform syllabus and a “national system of education”.

“We plan to set up a national curriculum council to review syllabus and bring it on a par with international standards,” he added.

“Madressahs will also be taken on board without giving an impression that we are pursuing any international agenda. The previous regime un-necessarily politicised the Madressah issue with political motives,” he said.

Khawaja Asif, the minister in charge for sports, informed the house that his ministry’s affairs needed a serious review because most of its institutions were dominated by armed forces personnel.

He recommended that the issue be referred to the committee concerned of the National Assembly and proceedings should be open to the media.

Mr Asif was responding to MNA Hanif Abbasi’s question about the salary of Pakistan Cricket Board’s (PCB) Chief Executive Sharq Naghmi who was drawing a monthly salary ranging between Rs 450,000 and Rs 560,000.

Interestingly, the PCB, working under President Pervez Musharraf as its patron-in-chief stated in its reply, that Mr Naghmi’s “basic salary is Rs 38,000 only”. “This man is a bureaucrat who has somehow managed to enter the PCB. There are some bureaucrats who are drawing huge salaries in the the PCB. This also needs to be looked into,” the minister said.

The house agreed that the matter should be investigated by the committee concerned.