Pakistan has not yet granted the Most Favoured Nation (MFN) status to India, Minister for States and Frontier Regions Abbas Khan Afridi told the National Assembly (NA) on Wednesday.
During the Question Hour, Afridi told the House that Pakistan maintains a Negative List of items for trade with India, and the MFN status would be awarded after removing the negative items from the list.
Elaborating further, Afridi said the MFN status to India would be granted after the elimination of the Negative List after the cabinet’s approval. He said that India had already granted MFN status to Pakistan in 1996.
TAMING TV ANCHORS:
The Lower House also adopted a resolution demanding action against TV anchors telecasting “baseless programmes against parliamentarians”, while urging the need for a journalistic code of conduct.
Starting with a delay of 35 minutes, the 13th sitting of the NA session passed the resolution to demand action against “anchorpersons who are telecasting programmes against parliamentarians…without verification of the facts.”
After a debate that lasted for one and a half hour, the House demanded the owners of media houses to expel such anchors and take necessary action against them.
Earlier, MNA Sheikh Waqas Akram, who moved the resolution, said that after his speech against a banned outfit, a section of the media had started a defamation campaign against him, and levelled “baseless allegations against him”, including possession of fake degrees and receiving money from Moonis Elahi.
At this occasion, NA Speaker Dr Fehmida Mirza remarked that a code of conduct should be prepared for journalists to avoid any baseless blackmailing.
Akram said that the anchor who aired a programme against him was the one who had demanded that the chief justice of Pakistan be hanged. He said that the anchor, Mubashir Luqman, had been ousted from a private television channel for airing a programme in return of financial gains. Akram accused Luqman of illegally receiving money from Deputy Prime Minister Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi and his son, adding that Luqman was already serving a legal notice filed by another anchorperson.
Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) MNA Chaudhry Abdul Ghafoor pointed out that an English-language daily had published a “baseless and insulting” news item, calling the NA speaker and deputy speaker “defaulters”. He demanded apology from the reporter and owner of the newspaper which printed the story.
The NA speaker said that if a certain ministry or department was responsible for the payment of the speaker’s and deputy speaker’s utility bills, how they could be held responsible.
Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) MNA Asif Husnain also endorsed Akram’s point of view, and condemned the particular programme as well as its host.
Awami National Party (ANP) MNA Bushra Gohar advised the parliamentarians to boycott such programmes and the anchorpersons. She said that if the government organisations or the departments fail to make payments, then the MNAs and ministers should pay the dues from their own pockets, and explain why their dues reached Rs 2.5 million.
PPP’s Ejaz Jhakrani also supported Akram, saying that he had served a legal notice to the owner of a news channel in one such incident while he was in London.
Kashmala Tariq said that now the media persons would not give due coverage to the resolution, as it was against them. She also demanded accountability of the journalists living in costly residences.
RAILWAYS:
To a question‚ Minister for Railways Haji Ghulam Ahmad Bilour told the House that out of 281 non-functional diesel and electric locomotives‚ 250 were being repaired and rehabilitated at a cost of Rs 17 billion, adding that the projects were expected to be completed within next 3 years subject to availability of funds.
YOUTUBE:
Responding to a point of order raised by Shazia Marri‚ Defence Minister Naveed Qamar said that the government was seriously reviewing the issue of ban on YouTube in Pakistan, adding that the ban would be lifted soon.
Standing Committee on Interior Member Aijaz Hussain Jakhrani, on behalf of the chairman of the committee, presented a report on “the Anti-Terrorism (Second Amendment) Bill‚ 2013”.
During the sitting, the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (Amendment) Bill 2013 was also passed by the House. Meanwhile, two bills – the Pakistan Institute of Fashion Design (Amendment) Bill 2013 and the Surveying and Mapping Bill 2013 – were introduced and sent to the relevant standing committees.
