ISLAMABAD, Sept 12: The Capital Development Authority (CDA) has spent Rs9.669 million in 2002-03 to replace carpets in the Parliament House, the National Assembly was told here on Friday.

The federal minister for petroleum, Noraiz Shakoor, on behalf of the interior minister, who is also in charge of the CDA, said 11,124 square yards of carpet was purchased from a company to renovate the National Assembly. However, the old carpets are still to be auctioned. The tenders were opened on August 13, 2002 in which five companies participated.

While replying to a supplementary question of MNA Rashid Akbar, the minister said the parliament members were not responsible for damaging the carpets of the Parliamentary Lodges.

He said during the suspension of the assemblies, the lodges were in the use of some officials of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) and senior officials of other government departments, who had no residential facility in the capital.

Rashid Akbar had said when the lodges were closed after the suspension of the parliament in 1999, then how were the carpets of the lodges damaged. He was of the view that the MNAs were being blamed for damaging these carpets.

To another question, the house was told that medicines worth Rs2.9 million were provided to the parliament house dispensary from November 2002 to June 2003, while medicines amounting to Rs3 million were provided to the dispensary located inside the Parliament Lodges during the same period.

About 11,520 patients visited the dispensary of the Parliament House, while 12,385 visited the dispensary of Parliament Lodges during the same period.

The house was told that women, who wore veils, were required to remove these at the airports before an immigration officer while proceeding abroad. This was done to confirm the identification of the women passengers and to check their documents including visa. Women staff has, therefore, been deputed for this purpose.

To another question, the house was informed that there were six burn units in the country including one each in Lahore, Karachi, Wah, Hyderabad, Peshawar and Quetta.