PARC land issue: Senate panel asks CDA to submit response

Privilege motion on Polyclinic ED appointment disposed of

A Senate panel has given the Capital Development Authority (CDA) a month to explain weather or not the summary for the cancellation of the land lease agreement for Pakistan Agriculture Research Cooperation (PARC) will be withdrawn.

The Senate Committee on Rules of Procedure and Privileges met under the chairmanship of Senator Jehanzeb Jamaldini on Thursday. The matter was referred to the committee as a breach of privilege of the Senate’s standing committee on National Food Security and Research as the directives of the committee on withdrawing the summary was not implemented by CDA. The same report of the committee was also adopted by the house, so the matter stood as a breach of privilege of both the committee and the house.

The privilege motion of Senator Kalsoom Parveen was disposed of after the mover expressed satisfaction with the standing committee on Cabinet Secretariat report regarding violations of the panel’s recommendations on interviews of candidates for executive director of Polyclinic.

The privilege motion of Senator Daud Khan Achakzai regarding the absence of the Balochistan chief secretary and the FWO DG in meetings of the standing committee on communications was also disposed of after hearing the Balochistan chief secretary who was present in the meeting. He assured the committee that he will ensure his presence in the next meeting, when the relevant agenda is under discussion.

The meeting also discussed a breach of privilege by the Aviation Division and PIA on a call attention notice regarding the crashed PIA ATR.

Senator Samina Abid asked about the possibility of a technical fault from the beginning of the flight. The Aviation secretary explained that black box audio synchronisation is in process and that the cause of the failure of both engines would become available after the investigation.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 13^th, 2017.