ISLAMABAD, May 12: The National Assembly was informed on Thursday that the government was spending Rs7.8 million per month on pay and allowances of 773 employees of the Prime Minister’s Secretariat. This information was placed before the house in response to a question by MNA Ambreen Naeem. The Rs7.8 million expenditure on the salary of these employees is in addition to the expenses incurred on the staff of the Prime Minister’s House.
NRB CONSULTANTS: The House was told that 20 consultants working with the National Reconstruction Bureau (NRB) had left their jobs last year.
The information furnished to the house in response to a question by MNA Kashmala Tariq showed that three consultants resigned from their job, while the contract of 16 expired during the year. Only one consultant left the job after completing his tenure.
The three consultants, who submitted their resignations included Dr Anwar H Siddiqui, Shahid Hussain and Syed Ali.
The consultants whose contract expired in 2004 included Mirza Muhammad Karim, Malik Muhammad Siddique, Inayatullah, Bilal Hasan Khan, Atif Haneef Abbasi, Asad Dar, Zulfiqar Ali Qureshi, Syed Mushir Hussain Naqvi, Prof Laeeq Ahmed Khan, Mohammad Nazar Memon, Moinuddin Khan, Dr ZU Khan, Dr M Anwar Butt, Dr Mir Ajmal Hamid, Col (retd) Ghulam Rasool, Brig (retd) Hafeezullah Khan.
The information showed that only one consultant, Masood H Kizalbash, left the job after completing the assignment.
CONSULTANT IN PRESIDENT HOUSE: In response to a question by MNA Sardar Ayaz Sadiq, the house was told that Ch Irshad Ahmed had been appointed as consultant in the President’s Secretariat. Mr Irshad was getting perks and remuneration as admissible to a high court judge.
The house was told that the consultant regularly scrutinised the representations made to the president under different laws relating to the office of Wafaqi Mohtasib, Tax Ombudsman and other cases.
TWO refused to attend moot: The National Assembly was informed on Thursday that only two parliamentarians had declined to attend a WTO symposium held in Geneva from April 20 to 22 while the names of four had to be dropped as logistic arrangements could not bear the load of a large contingent of Pakistani dignitaries.
The information placed before the house in response to a question by MNA Pervaiz Malik showed that the names of the questioner and MNAs Dr Doniya Aziz, Sher Akbar Khan and Liaquat Baloch were dropped from the list of 23 people.
MNA Naveed Qamar could not attend the symposium as he was travelling abroad while Senator Dilawar Abbas and MNA Asfandyar Wali had declined to participate.
The large contingent included Town Nazim Lahore Chaudhry Mohammad Ashraf as the only one from among the local government representatives. The criterion for selection of members of the contingent was neither asked for nor placed before the house.
While Senator Dilawar Abbas and MNA Asfandyar Wali were the only two who declined to enjoy a free ride on taxpayers’ money, others did not miss the opportunity to visit Geneva.
The house was informed that those who could not attend the symposium would be accommodated when such opportunities arise in future.
Those who went to attend the convention included the following: Governor Punjab Lt-Gen (retired) Khalid Maqbool, MNAs Kashmala Tariq, Alsyed Abdul Qadir Jamaluddin, Zaheer Abbas Khokhar, Sardar Jaffar Khan Leghari, Chaudhry Imranullah, Saleem Jan Mazari, Dr Farooq Sattar, Aslam Bodla and Haroon Qaiser; the town nazim Lahore; state minister for petroleum Naseer Mengal, state minister for commerce Hamid Yar Hiraj, parliamentary secretary (commerce) Mazhar Ahmed Qureshi, senators Ilyas Bilour and Dr Nighat Agha.