ISLAMABAD: A minister admitted on the floor of the Senate on Tuesday that a proposal to shift the headquarters of the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) from Karachi to Islamabad was under consideration.

The admission came from Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Sheikh Aftab Ahmed in response to a call attention notice moved by the PPP’s parliamentary leader, Saeed Ghani.

The minister said that the CAA headquarters was being shifted on “administrative grounds.” A committee has been constituted to decide the shifting of the CAA’s training institute from Hyderabad to some other city.

Also read: ‘Gulf-specific’ aviation policy questioned

He said that Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, who is the in-charge minister for aviation, had realised the need for shifting of the CAA headquarters to the federal capital.

Giving reasons for the move, the minister said the CAA had undertaken several projects, including construction of airports in different cities, and its officials had to travel to Islamabad on daily basis to attend meetings.

About the training institute, he said, foreigners in the past attended training sessions at the institute but they had stopped doing so because of law and order situation in Hyderabad. Therefore, the government has set up a committee to look into the options of shifting the institute to some other city.

The Senate would be informed about the final decision on the matter whenever it was made, Mr Ahmed said.

Earlier, speaking on his calling attention notice, Saeed Ghani asked who had approved the plan to shift the CAA headquarters from Karachi. “Has the Council of Common Interests, the federal cabinet or any other institution given the approval?”

He said that over 1,600 people worked at the CAA headquarters and its shifting would cause problems for their families.

For the first time in the parliamentary history of the country, the Senate constituted itself into a committee to formulate proposals on providing inexpensive and speedy justice to common people.

After a discussion on a motion, moved by the Muttahida Qaumi Movement’s Tahir Mashhadi on provision of speedy and inexpensive justice to people on Monday, Senate Chairman Raza Rabbani had announced that a committee of the whole house would be constituted through a motion following the demand made by several senators.

Leader of House Raja Zafarul Haq moved the motion under Rule 172-A of the Senate rules.

The committee will present a report to the house in three months. But, the members decided that the three-month period would start after Eidul Fitr.

The committee will have the powers to summon any person for questioning or ask for any government record.

The Senate chairman will preside over the meetings of the committee. The first meeting will be held on Wednesday (today) in the main hall of the Senate.

Meanwhile, responding to a call attention notice of Awami National Party’s Shahi Syed, Adviser to the Prime Minister on Foreign Affairs, Sartaj Aziz, said the government was trying to verify that 16 Pakistani nationals were languishing in an Israeli jail and recover them, through the United Nations and US and Jordan embassies in Tel Aviv.

The Pakistani nationals had gone missing in 2009 after a merchant vessel, MV Danny FII, met an accident in Red Sea, he said and termed it a serious human rights issue.

But, he said, the presence of those Pakistanis in Israeli jail had not been verified so far.

The government was trying through indirect sources and the UN to resolve the issue as Pakistan had no diplomatic relations with Israel, Mr Aziz said.

Published in Dawn, May 20th, 2015

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