ISLAMABAD, Dec 9: The treasury and opposition members in the Senate on Thursday again raised the issue of ministers' absence and their "non-serious attitude" during the parliamentary proceedings and asked the acting chairman to take a serious notice of it.
The issue came to light during the question hour when Federal Minister for Religious Affairs Ijazul Haq was found absent from the house and there was no person on the treasury benches to respond to the supplementary questions related to Mr Haq's ministry.
When Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Dr Sher Afgan said that he would give replies to the supplementary questions regarding the ministry of religious affairs, the treasury and opposition members protested over it. The senators said Dr Sher Afgan was the only minister, who gave replies to the questions on behalf of almost all the ministries.
Before asking a supplementary question regarding the distribution of Zakat in the country, Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA) Senator Dr Mohammad Ismail Buledi drew the attention of acting chairman Khalilur Rahman that neither the minister concerned nor the minister of state was present in the house.
The acting chairman asked Mr Afgan, who was busy in discussing some point with the health minister, to return to his seat and respond to the opposition's criticism that why ministers did not come to the house. He said the religious affairs minister was busy in an important meeting and he had assigned him the task to respond to the questions related to his ministry.
A treasury member Chaudhry Mohammad Anwar Bhinder protested over this statement of Mr Afgan and said for a minister nothing could be more important than the Senate session.
The deputy chairman said Mr Bhinder was right to say that the ministers should not give priority to other engagements over the parliamentary proceedings. Mr Bhinder said it was an insult of the house that the minister could not come to the house due to some other engagements.
The acting chairman asked Mr Afgan to bring the matter into the notice of the prime minister, as this problem had been lingering on for a long time. Meanwhile, Mr Afgan faced criticism from the members when he said Zakat was distributed among the provinces keeping in view the population.
He was responding to the questions of the members that why most of the Zakat fund had been utilized in the Punjab. He said Balochistan had received less amount from the Zakat fund, as its population was very low.
Sanaullah Baloch of the Balochistan National Party (BNP) said according to Islam, Zakat should be distributed keeping in view the poverty and backwardness of the areas. He said when people were dying in Balochistan due to hunger and poverty, the Zakat fund was being utilized in the Punjab only because it had big population.
To this objection, Mr Afgan said most of the Zakat fund was also collected from the Punjab and even the Balochistan province was provided the amount, collected from the Punjab.
Another treasury member Tanveer Khalid criticized the system of Zakat collection and suggested that Zakat should not be deducted in banks and the people should be allowed to help the needy persons around them.
Meanwhile, Mr Afgan again received severe criticism from the opposition members when he said a question regarding farmers package announced by Gen Musharraf had been transferred to the ministry of foreign affairs for the reply.
Prof Ghafoor Ahmed of the MMA had questioned the minister in charge of the president's secretariat that whether the president's recent package for farmers had been implemented. No reply was given to the question and Dr Sher Afgan said the question had been sent to the ministry of foreign affairs.
Prof Khurshid Ahmed said why the question had been sent to the ministry of foreign affairs when it had nothing to do with the agriculture. On it, Mr Afgan said he would inquire from the officials concerned and let the house know about it.