Alternative measures: Old tyres to fuel power plants, minister says

Postponement of debate on The Punjab Pension Fund report 2010 sought.

LAHORE:

The government has decided to generate electricity by recycling old tyres and will establish several units and treatment plants in this regard, Minister for Industries Chaudhry Shafique told the Punjab Assembly during the question hour on Friday.

The session chaired by Speaker Rana Muhammad Iqbal Khan opened at 10:20am. Shafique answered queries regarding the Industries, Commerce and Investment Departments during the question hour.

He said that around 267 industrial units that burned tyres for energy would be served notices for causing pollution. The government will purchase 50 acres in Sundar Estate where industrial units operating within the city will be shifted. “There are 24 steel mills in Shalimar Town, 11 of which have been served notices,” he said.

Of the 17,857 industrial units in the Punjab, 410 were steel mills, Shafique said, almost all of them burnt old tyres. “And 300 of those are located in Lahore alone,” he said.

Rules of procedure

The Assembly postponed its discussion on The Punjab Pension Fund report for 2010, presented in the house early this year, because the opposition stated that they were not aware of the report’s contents.

Law and Local Government Minister Rana Sanaullah Khan initiated a debate on the Punjab Pension Fund 2010 report presented earlier in 2013.

The opposition objected to it and requested the treasury to conduct the house business according to procedure.

They said the new assembly had come into existence after the elections in May and they were not aware about the contents of the report. They said they had learnt that the discussion on the report was on the agenda when they entered the house on Friday. “The treasury wants to bulldoze the smooth proceedings of the house,” said an opposition member.

Shafique said the vacant positions at the Rawalpindi Technical Institute will be filled when the government lifted the ban on recruitment.

The Speaker adjourned the session till Monday evening.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 17^th, 2013.