Khursheed Shah calls for rights of smaller provinces in NA speech
The Senate passed one bill and witnessed introduction of two bills during the first sitting of its 127th session on Thursday.
The House passed the Pakistan Bait-ul-Mal (Amendment) Bill, 2016. A copy of the Money Bill, the Members, Election Commission (Salary, Allowances, perks and Privileges) Bill, 2016 was presented in the House and the Chair asked the members to submit their recommendations.
The House witnessed presentation of the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (Amendment) Bill, 2016 and the National Energy Efficiency and Conservation Bill, 2016. Both bills were referred to the relevant committees for further deliberations.
Special report of the Standing Committee on Finance about privatisation of Heavy Electrical Complex (HEC) could not be presented after objections raised by the members of this committee. The Chair announced to decide about this matter on April 18.
Meanwhile in the National Assembly, Leader of Opposition in National Assembly Syed Khursheed Ahmed Shah on Thursday said federal government should protect the rights of smaller provinces.
Speaking in the National Assembly on a point of order, he said the federal government gave Rs 10.4 billion to MNAs from Punjab, Rs 800 million from Sindh, Rs 480 million from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), Rs 440 million from Balochistan and Rs 1.1 billion to MNAs from FATA as development funds.
He said there was no fairness in distribution of funds to the members of parliament.
“What message was being given by the federal government to the federating units in distribution of development funds among the members of parliament?” he asked.
About small schemes launched during 2013 to 2015, he said of a total of 3083 small schemes amounting to Rs 32.50 billion, some 2129 schemes were in Punjab.
He said under this scheme 492 scheme were given to Sindh, four to KP, 88 to Balochistan, 276 to FATA while 94 schemes were initiated in Islamabad.
He was also critical of the Punjab government for utilizing all funds on development of Lahore ignoring Southern Punjab.
Minister for Climate Change Zahid Hamid told the National Assembly that hopefully Karakoram Highway (KKH) would be opened for one-way traffic by April 15.
He was responding to a point of order of Khursheed Shah regarding shortage of food items and miseries of people of Gilgit Baltistan following the closure of KKH after recent rains.
He said there were 200 landslides on the KKH due to the recent rains which were cleared while work was in progress on two block areas of Dasu and Khayal and it would also be cleared for one-way traffic within two days.