Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) boycotted the Senate session over disappearances of Ashfaq Leghari and Ghulam Qadir Murree—two aides of former president Asif Ali Zardari—when State Minister of Interior Engineer Baligh-ur-Rehman said that his ministry had nothing to do with the disappearances.
While speaking during the session, PPP’s Senator Farhatullah Babar said that people from the country are being disappeared for political purposes. “The government has admitted that three individuals are missing. It may come to a point where I might be picked up next,” he told the house.
Senate Chairman Raza Rabbani decided to call the PPP legislators back, tasking the Leader of the House Raja Zafar-ul-Haque to bring them back.
Senator Tahir Hussain Mashhadi moved an adjournment motion to discuss the alarming rise in the use and selling of drugs among university students, the House approved the motion. On the other hand, Senator Mohsin Aziz took his notice back to discuss the decision of the government to privatise three international airports of Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad through an executive order.
During the question and answer session, Senator Sartaj Aziz told the house that Pakistan Foreign Office Women’s Association (PFOWA) is a non-profit organisation that aims for the welfare of lower staff of foreign office from grade 1 to 15, and to project a soft image of Pakistan abroad. “In the past three years, the organisation received around Rs18.8 million in funds,” he informed the house.
State Minister for Health Sarah Afzal Tarar, during the question hour, told the house that at present, 115 pharmacy degree awarding institutions are working in both public and private sectors. “At present, the posts of pharmacists were empty in many government departments,” she said.
