Over 72 million acre feet (MAF) of water escaped below Kotri during the last four monsoon seasons in the country, Minister for Water and Power Syed Naveed Qamar told the Senate in a written reply on Friday.
He said 5.67MAF of water escaped below Kotri in 2008, 4MAF in 2009, 50.50MAF in 2010 and 11.96MAF in 2011.
Qamar said a number of storages, including Diamer Basha Dam, Munda Dam, Kurram Tangi Dam would be constructed in the near future to store water. He said the appointment of a consultant for Munda Dam would be made within a week, adding that the construction work on the dam would start soon and would be completed within due course of time.
The Senate was informed that of Rs 2 billion budgeted allocation for Pakistan Baitul Maal, Rs 800 million had been released. Minister for Vocational and Professional Training Riaz Hussain Pirzada informed the House that depending on the actual need and availability of funds, supplementary allocations were also considered positively. He said work was underway for the release of remaining budgetary allocation of Rs 1.2 billion for baitul maal.
The Senate was informed that a total of 5,430 plots had been allotted under the Federal Government Employees Housing Foundation, but the handing over of possession of plots to the allottees was yet to start.
To a question, Minister for Religious Affairs Khurshid Ahmad Shah said since its inception, the Council of Islamic Ideology had released 80 reports. He said of these, one was a ten-year report from 1962 to 1973, one a three-year report from 1974 to 1977, twenty-five were annual reports and the rest were subject reports on various topics.
The minister said sixteen annual reports on various topics, including “Final Report 1996”, had been laid before parliament by 1996. He said 12 Annual Reports from 1997 to 2009 were yet to be laid before parliament.
The Senate chairman gave ruled that reports of the council from 1997 to-date must also be laid before the House in the next session.