The interior ministry on Monday informed the National Assembly that it was unaware of the whereabouts of the national flag which was presented by Pakistan's first prime minister Liaquat Ali Khan during the first meeting of the constituent assembly on August 11, 1947.

In a written reply to a question by PML-N lawmaker Khalida Mansoor, the interior ministry said it was "not responsible for the protection of the first flag and was only responsible for rules regarding the flag".

Mansoor had asked about the whereabouts of the first flag of the country — presented to Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah by Liaquat Ali Khan.

MNAs demand security for worship places of minorities

The NA session began on Monday with a minute of silence observed for the victims of Sunday's Quetta church attack.

JUI-F's minority member Asiya Nasir observed that the rise in attacks on worship places of minorities was worrying. She demanded of the government to provide adequate security to churches across the country.

Parliamentary Secretary for Religious Affairs and Inter-faith Harmony Khalil George said, “A fund and a committee should be formed so that security arrangements can be made in this regard.”

He demanded Rs100 million grant for the religious affairs ministry for this purpose.

George urged the federal government to disburse Rs5 million as compensation to the family of each victim of the Quetta tragedy.

The parliamentary secretary was of the opinion that a licence for an automatic weapon must be issued to all church administrations as part of enhanced security measures.

The attendance at the NA remained low and the session had to be briefly suspended after a member pointed towards the lack of quorum.

17 human traffickers identified, seven arrested

The interior ministry also submitted a written reply regarding action taken by the ministry and security forces against human traffickers following the Turbat tragedy in which 15 people attempting to cross over into Iran on their way to Europe were killed last month.

The ministry said that a video of the killing had surfaced following the incident and five others were killed in Kech a few days later. It added that investigation against the traffickers was carried out by the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) using information gathered from the families of the victims.

The reply submitted by the ministry read that 17 alleged traffickers have been identified of which seven have been arrested so far following the registration of seven first information reports (FIRs) regarding the incident.

It further informed that Interpol has also been contacted for arrests of 14 Iranian alleged human traffickers involved in the trade.