ISLAMABAD – Partially accepting the PML-N’s concerns on the parliament lodges’ extension project, Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani referred the plan to House and the Library Committee of the National Assembly, saying that the government would accept whatever decision the committee took.
In response to the opposition leader’s point of order on the project, the prime minister informed the House that it was initiated in 2008. “The CDWP with Assef Ahmed Ali as Planning Commission deputy chairman approved it in September 2009. Later the project was presented to ACNEC headed by the then finance minister Shaukat Tareen, which approved it on January 21 2010,” he said, adding that House and the Library Committee of the National Assembly had also approved it.
However, he said contrary to the impression that Rs 2.90 billion had been allocated for the project, just Rs 410 million had been reserved for it in the previous budget. He said the construction would take two to three years. Earlier, Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly Nisar Ali Khan had asked the premier to announce putting the plan on hold.
On the situation in Karachi, Gilani said the government was making all-out efforts to normalise the situation in the city. Regarding the controversy over action by Rangers in Karachi, Gilani said it came in the ambit of the Sindh government, which would be elaborated by the interior minister.
The prime minister said he had directed the CDA to reserve three percent quota for journalists in all sectors of the capital so there should not be any sense of deprivation that any particular segment of society was privileged.
