ISLAMABAD: The country’s energy regulators came under fire in the National Assembly on Friday with two opposition walkouts over the latest increases in petroleum prices and the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra) was partly blamed by members from both sides of the house for power shortages.

It was the Muttahida Qaumi Movement which left the PPP-led coalition government last month that staged the first walkout against an increase of about four per cent in the princes of petroleum products announced overnight, with one party member, Asif Hasnain, asking why the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (Ogra) had not consulted a parliamentary committee formed for the purpose.

The Pakistan Muslim League-N, the main opposition party, did so rather comically, with only a few party members present at the time rushing out after one of them spoke a sentence of protest against what he called an “excessive petrol bomb” just as Speaker Fehmida Mirza had announced the end of the day’s business and was about to adjourn the house for a two-day weekend recess.

The Nepra came under attack from both the treasury and opposition benches earlier during the question hour for allegedly blocking the generation of alternative energy such as through solar and wind projects by delaying tariff fixation for them.

After a ruling Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) member, Azra Fazal Pechuho, a sister of President Asif Ali Zardari, complained of unspecified private parties discouraged by Nepra’s alleged failure to fix tariff rates to be paid to them, Minister of State for Water and Power, Tasneem Ahmed Qureshi, said some entrepreneurs had even given up their plans because of the attitude of Nepra, which he clarified was under the control of the cabinet division not the water and power ministry.

He particularly mentioned the case of sugar mills, which he said had offered to produce eight 10 megawatts each of electricity from bagasse but could not do that because of the Nepra’s perceived obstruction.

The minister said even a prime ministerial directive in a meeting several months ago to utilise even the smallest sources of energy did not seem to materialise as he urged the cabinet division to goad Nepra to do the needful.

PML-N’s Pervaiz Malik accused Nepra of blocking a 400-megawatt solar energy project in Punjab province, which his party rules.

MENACING BEGGARS: There was a lively discussion in an otherwise insipid sitting on a call-attention notice about what its five sponsors called “thousands of professional beggars roaming” Islamabad who, they said, were harassing motorists on road crossings and giving a bad name to the national capital.

The Minister of State for Interior, Chaudhry Imtiaz Safdar Warraich, claimed actions taken by authorities, such as sending children and women to care homes like Dar-ul-Aman and Edhi welfare centres and arresting and prosecuting adult male beggars had improved the situation in 2012 compared to 2011.

But nobody seemed convinced, with the movers of the notice citing the presence of beggars like those posing as injured and women carrying children on a road crossing until late at night and police doing nothing.

SECURITY THREAT: The Minister for Education and Training, Sheikh Waqas Akram, of the government-allied Pakistan Muslim League-Q, told the house while speaking on a point of order that the Punjab police chief had withdrawn police guards provided to him and his family after he made a speech in the house recently criticising some banned religious organisations, which he has often said are patronised by the provincial PML-N government.

He said though he could himself arrange for his security, the Punjab police would be responsible “if anything happens to me and my family”.

MINORITY SEATS’ BILL: For the second day running, a poor attendance in the house prevented the ruling coalition from seeking the passage of a government bill on the agenda seeking to amend the Constitution to increase seats for non-Muslim minority communities in the National Assembly and the four provincial assemblies.

An amendment to the Constitution requires its passage by two-thirds majorities in the 342-seat National Assembly and 104-seat Senate.