ISLAMABAD, Jan 25: Opposition members on Wednesday staged a token walkout from the Senate to register their protest over, what they called, a discriminatory treatment with the people of smaller provinces and domination of the Punjab in foreign postings. The opposition members were not satisfied with the replies given by Foreign Minister Khurshid Mehmood Kasuri in response to various questions regarding the number of persons working in Pakistani missions abroad with province-wise break-ups.
The replies given by the minister show that there were 177 officials working in embassies and consulates of Pakistan in different countries and 119 of them are from Punjab, 21 from NWFP, 20 from Sindh, nine from Fata/Fana, four from Balochistan, two from AJK and two from Islamabad.
Similarly, Mr Kasuri in a written reply to a question of Dr Ismail Buledi of the MMA told the Senate that at present 15 consul generals were posted in Pakistani missions abroad, out of which eight belonged to Punjab, four to the NWFP and one each to Sindh, Balochistan and Federally-Administered Tribal Areas (Fata).
Replying to the second part of the question, Mr Kasuri said that there were 43 officials in BPS-15 and above working in the consulates general. Giving break-up, he said, 32 of these officials were from Punjab, six from Sindh, three from the NWFP and one each from Balochistan and Fata.
Dr Ismail Buledi regretted that the people of Balochistan were not being given their due share in foreign postings.
Sanaullah Baloch of the Balochistan National Party (BNP) claimed that there was no mention in the constitution that jobs should be provided to the people in accordance with the population. He said the data provided by the foreign minister showed that people from Punjab had occupied over 70 per cent of posts in Pakistani consulates in Gulf states. He said that the foreign ministry should represent the federation and not Islamabad or just one federating unit.
Mr Baloch regretted that Baloch people did not have representation in the federation and they were here only to “receive bullets.”
Rehmatullah Kakar of the MMA, Abdul Latif Ansari of the PPP and Ilyas Bilour of the ANP also criticized the government for not observing job quota while offering government posts. They said that the people of smaller provinces were being neglected while jobs were being given only to the people of Punjab.
The opposition members refused to listen to the reply from Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Khusro Bakhtiar when he took the floor to respond to their points and staged a token walkout.
Earlier, the foreign minister told the house that out of 38 persons working in Pakistani embassy in Tehran (Iran), 27 were from Punjab, three each from Sindh and NWFP, two each from Islamabad and Fata and one from Balochistan.
He said that there were five officials in the Pakistani Consulate in Mashhed (Iran), out of which three from Punjab and one each from NWFP and Fata.
In the Pakistani Consulate in Zahidan (Iran), he said, there were 13 officials and seven of them belonged to Punjab, five to the NWFP and one to Fata.
Similarly, the minister said that out of 23 officials at Pakistani embassy in the UAE, 15 were from Punjab, four from Sindh, two from NWFP and one from Fata. In the Dubai consulate general, he said, out of 31 officials, 22 were from Punjab, five from Sindh and two each from NWFP and Fata.
There were 17 officials in the Pakistani embassy in Qatar and seven of them are from Punjab, four from NWFP, three from Sindh and one each from Balochistan, Fata and AJK.
In the Pakistani embassy of Bahrain, there were only eight officials and five of them were from Punjab, two from Sindh and one from NWFP. Total number of officials in the Pakistani embassy in Kuwait was 12 and seven of them were from Punjab, two each from Sindh and NWFP and one from Fata. There were 10 officials in Pakistan’s embassy in Paris (France) and eight of them were from Punjab and one each from Fata and AJK. In Pakistani embassy in Muscat, there were 20 officials and 18 of them were from Punjab and one each from Balochistan and NWFP.