Opposition senators fulminate against drug price hike

Ministers say issues lingering on since previous govts

ISLAMABAD:

The opposition in the Senate fulminated on Friday against the recent increase in the prices of medicines and the pilot licences issue, prompting the government to defend its policies, saying that the all these issues were lingering on since the tenures of the previous governments.

The Senate session was held with Deputy Chairman Saleem Mandiwala in the chair. Senator Sherry Rehman and Senator Mushtaq Ahmad raised the 10% increase in drug prices through a calling attention notice.

The government increased medicines by 10% this year. They have proved that these people are insensitive. I am sorry to say, what this ‘Yazidi government’ is doing,” Rehman told the house.

Senator Ahmad said that the prices of medicines in Pakistan were the highest in the entire region. Senator Mushahidullah said that a former health minister was removed over corruption which was acknowledged by the then special assistant.

Minister of State Ali Mohammad Khan took exception to the comment of “Yazidi government”, saying that it was inappropriate to say that. He reminded the house that the PTI government had reduced the prices of 400 medicines in 2019.

The drug policy was introduced on May 22, 2018 during the tenure of Nawaz Sharif government, he said. The way they artificially maintained the value of the dollar, it was not possible to keep the drug prices at the previous level,” he added. The chair referred the matter to the health committee.

PIA plight

Senator Javed Abbasi draw attention of the hosue towards the European Union and other countries’ ban on the Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) flights. Abbasi said that the statement of the aviation minister about fake degrees of pilots increased the difficulties for Pakistan.

Senator Mir Kabir Ahmad Shahi said that if 262 licenses were fake then who benefited from raising this issue in the house. However, Aviation Minister Ghulam Sarwar Khan clarified that the ban was not imposed because of the government. “The matter has been going on since 2007,” he said.

He clarified that the PIA operations had been suspended for 6 months. “PIA has the right to appeal and we will appeal later this month,” he said, of the ban imposed by the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA). “We are confident that our efforts will succeed in lifting of the suspension.”

‘Current and former’

Senator Naseebullah Baazi said that the Balochistan government had taken the best steps to deal with the coronavirus pandemic. The house was informed that there were 3,567 hospitals treating the coronavirus patients.

Meanwhile, the senators had a lighter moment when they noticed that the government, in a written reply over the expenses of the successive prime ministers’ foreign tours , mistakenly wrote Imran Khan “as former prime minister”.

The reply said that during the PPP government, Yusuf Raza Gilani and Raja Pervez Ashraf spent more than Rs 484.4 million on foreign tours. During PML-N government, prime ministers Nawaz Sharif and Shahid Khaqan Abbasi spent more than Rs 1.54 billion on foreign tours.

Prime Minister Imran Khan's foreign trips had so far cost more than Rs 45.6 million, the reply said. However, it was noted that “former Prime Minister” was written with the name of Imran Khan.

Federal Minister Murad Saeed said that 18 visits of PML-N premiers to London, mostly the private visits were “in front of everyone”. The visits by PPP prime minister were mostly to UAE. He added that spending public money on personal visits should be investigated.