QUETTA, May 7: Balochistan Assembly unanimously adopted a resolution on Friday against frequent increases in prices of petroleum products and asked the federal government to review the policy which is directly affecting people's life in the country.

Speaker Jamal Shah Kakar presided over the Friday session. The current session of the Balochistan Assembly after remaining for 14 days in process was prorogued sine die. During the session, the House passed two bills, adopted two resolutions, disposed of two adjournment motions and rejected one.

Fateha was offered for Karachi bomb blast victims. Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Mir Abdur Rehman Jamali, Jan Mohammad Buledi, Shafique Ahmed Khan and Amina Khanum took part in the discussion on the adjournment motion tabled by Abdur Rahim Ziaratwal regarding the increase in the prices of petrol and diesel.

They said that the increase in the rates of petroleum products was hitting hard the common people as the prices of daily commodities directly take the impact of the POL price hike. The House allowed the motion to be admitted as a resolution.

The resolution stressed that the federal government should reverse the increase of the prices of petroleum products as it would relieve the people to some extent of the massive burden under which they were groaning.

The house also adopted a joint resolution that was tabled by Amina Khanum demanding that the federal government should determine a code of ethics for private television channels as some of the programmes were negating Islamic values, traditions, culture and distorting the character of youth.

The law and parliamentary affairs minister presented the Balochistan Public Service Commission (amendment) Bill, 2004, and was passed by the House. Education Minister Maulana Abdul Wahid Siddique tabled the Balochistan Education Foundation (amendment) Bill, 2004, and was also passed by the House. The amendment was aimed to ameliorate the declining standard of the education to make it compatible with the needs and requirements of the modern era.

A joint adjournment motion, tabled by Jaffar Khan Mandokhel, was disposed of when movers did not press it following assurance by Finance Minister Ehsan Shah. He said that the government would give sympathetic consideration to the promotion of police officers who were affected by status quo.

The chair ruled out a joint adjournment motion, tabled by Rehila Durrani, on the pretext that Balochistan University was an autonomous body and the matters of its examination branch were sensitive issues so interference in the examination results should be avoided.

Former chief minister and MPA Mir Jan Mohammad Jamali on a point of order suggested that the leader of the House and the opposition leader should summon a special session before budget to discuss matters relating to the federal government.

He said that the special session should comprehensively discuss the serious problems of the province including constitutional rights, development funds, job quota in the federal services and fair distribution of uplift funds to determine united policy that should be discussed with the federal government.