ISLAMABAD, Sept 23: The Senate Functional Committee on Government Assurances on Saturday directed the Ministries of Army Foreign Affairs and Interior to immediately constitute a probe team for proceeding to Eritrea on a fact finding mission to know about the fate of 16 members of the Tableegi Jamaat, who had been missing since October 1993, and to include one member of the committee in the team.

This directive was given by the committee while considering the assurance given by the Minister for Foreign Affairs, in response to a question made by Senator Muhammad Azam Swati, during the meeting of the committee which held here on Saturday at Parliament House with senator Chaudhry Muhammad Anwar Bhinder in the chair.

The committee welcomed opening of Consulate of Pakistan in Houston (USA) and directed the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to further augment the staff there so that the problems being faced by the community could be dealt with promptly.

The committee while considering the assurances given by the Minister for Health on the floor of the House, directed Ministry of Health to expedite purchase of MRI machine for the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS) and to complete the process within six months as a large number of patients are facing difficulties due to lack of this facility in the Capital’s premier health institution.

It also directed the ministry to procure within five months the CT Scan and MRI machines for the Chandka Medical College and Hospital, Larkana, for which the funding has already been made available by the federal and provincial governments.

Federal Minister for Health Muhammad Nasir Khan informed the Committee that the federal government had allowed the provincial governments to import anti-rabies and hepatitis medicines in case of their non-availability from the National Institute for Health (NIH) and a massive National Hepatitis Control Programme is being implemented.

Similarly, he said, about Rs3 billion project for supply of clean drinking water has also been approved in view  of contaminated water’s link to Hepatitis.