Govt pleads ignorance on Sindh terror financiers

PM Nawaz urged to take parliament into confidence on CPEC

ISLAMABAD:

The government told the Senate that as many as 37 people had been arrested on charges of financing terrorism across the country, but failed to provide details on all the suspects on Friday. The upper house also passed two bills and referred a third to a committee for further review.

Asked about how many people had been arrested under the National Action Plan on charges of financing terror, Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan in a written reply during the question hour on Friday said that five people had been arrested in Sindh, four in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) and 28 in Gilgit-Baltistan (G-B). Nisar added that those arrested in K-P and G-B were facing trials in anti-terror courts. But he provided no details regarding the five people arrested in Sindh.



PPP Senator Farhatullah Babar then asked a supplementary question about status of those arrested in Sindh.

In reply, Minister for Parliamentary Affair Sheikh Aftab said that he was not aware of the status of those arrested in Sindh on charges of terror financing. He also did not comment on former petroleum minister and close confidant of the former president Asif Ali Zardari, Dr Asim Hussain.

Take parliament into confidence on CPEC

Senate Chairman Raza Rabbani on Friday urged the government to take both houses of parliament into confidence over the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).



“It will be better for democracy that the government take all decisions in parliament,” Rabbani remarked during the question hour as he asked Information Minister Pervaiz Rashid to urge PM Nawaz to present a statement on the project to the parliament.

Two bills passed

The Senate on Friday unanimously passed two bills including the Foreigners (Amendment) Bill, 2015 and the National Database and Registration Authority (Amendment) Bill, 2015.



Senate Chairman Raza Rabbani referred a third bill, Pakistan Baitul Mal (Amendment) Bill, 2016, to the relevant committee for further deliberations.

FATA development

Federal Minister for SAFRON Abdul Qadir Baloch told the Senate that contracts had been awarded for a total of 400 schemes included in the development budget of Federally Administered Tribal Areas during the financial year 2013-14.

He added that a one-line budget of Rs16.58 billion had been allocated for Fata during this period. This was further distributed to 1,281 schemes. Of these, 281 were new schemes and were included in the annual development programme for 2013-14 following consultations with all stakeholders.

The schemes for which the contracts were awarded comprise communication, education, housing, sports, livestock, health, technical education and agriculture sectors.

Pakistan Railways’ fiscal deficit reduced

Federal Minister for Railways Saad Rafiq told the upper house of Parliament that the fiscal deficit of Pakistan Railways for the financial year 2014-2015 stood at Rs27.247, down from the financial year 2013-14 when the deficit stood at Rs32.527 billion.



The minister added that PR was focussing on improving its freight sector by inducting and rehabilitating new locomotives into the freight pool thereby increasing up country trains to 10 in 2014-15, up from just one in 2011-12.

FC in poor shape

Speaking on the admissibility of an adjournment motion to discuss issues plaguing the Frontier Constabulary (FC), Senator Babar said that during a recent meeting of the Senate’s committee on interior, a dismal picture of the force had been presented. Senate chairman Raza Rabbani, however asked the mover of the adjournment motion to press into service some other parliamentary instrument to agitate on the matter.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 16^th, 2016.