Rodents at NA Lodges: Rat problem consumes agenda of MNAs meeting

Parliamentarians are worried by presence of vermin at posh lodges.

ISLAMABAD: The National Assembly Standing Committee on Human Rights on Friday took a slight detour from its usual discourse over the mainstream issues plaguing humanity. Amid other things on the agenda, the members also discussed the perils presented by rodents housed in the Parliament Lodges.

The state-of-the-art complex, with ultra-posh facilities meant to cater to the lifestyle of lawmakers, happens to be infested with rats, cockroaches, and other insects, living on the grime and garbage at the fancy structure.

MNA Musarat Rafique complained that she was bitten by a rat some four months back and had had to be get inoculated five times over these months.

“It is a serious matter that requires proper attention. I was lucky to have survived the rat bite, as it could have proven fatal had I contracted some serious infection,” she told the committee.

MNA Aliya Kamran, who had also brought up the same matter in a previous meeting of the panel, said her children have also been attacked by rats.



“The Capital Development Authority (CDA) is responsible for ensuring sanitary arrangements but it has done nothing to fix the problem and we have been filling in the cracks and holes ourselves,” she said.

Kiran Dar said despite so much hue-and-cry over the issue, nothing has been done, implying that the concerned departments were not doing their jobs. Fed up with the commotion and unable to put his point across, one parliamentarian simply walked out of the meeting.

But the meeting continued, despite the uproar.

“There are rats in the Parliament Lodges,” MNA Kishwer Zehra of the MQM, said, “because there is so much grime, and it goes to show the poor performance of the CDA.” However, she added, the CDA alone is not to blame.

“There are among the parliamentarians such ‘feudal lords’, who have given their spaces to their servants, instead of availing the VIP facility themselves,” she said.

The average lodge comprises two bedrooms, and can house a maximum of four people. “But often we have seen that as many as 20 service staff members occupying one lodge and their ‘way-of-life’ can obviously make for a less than hygienic setting,” she said.

The CDA’s Parliament Lodges Director Ayaz Khan said the civic authority was taking steps such as setting up mouse traps, poison and sticky pads to do away with the rodents. He said these vermin make their way to the lodges through ceilings, drainage lines and sewers.

He said a new building, constructed next to the lodges, has disturbed the natural balance, compelling rodents to head towards the lodges. “Parliament Lodges are a perfect breeding ground for rats because there is filth and leftover food, creating conducive environment for them to settle down,” he added.

After listening to both the sides, the committee’s chairman Babar Nawaz Khan directed the CDA to tackle the matter on priority basis and find a permanent solution to the issue for the well-being of parliamentarians living in the lodges.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 28^th, 2016.