Tag: Senate

Senators question role of security agencies

The Senate on second day continued debate on the killing of Osama Bin Ladin and operation by US Forces within Pakistan territory without informing...

Senate body seeks record of 140,000 arms licences

ISLAMABAD - Senate Standing Committee on Interior has asked the Ministry of Interior to provide the record of 140,000 arms licenses issued since 2007 along with details of those issued on the recommendation of parliamentarians. "The committee has learnt a large number of arms licenses were issued on fake recommendations of the parliamentarians and their bogus letter pads were used in this regard," Chairman of the committee Senator Talha Mahmood said in meeting of the committee held on

Nato tankers not paying any taxes: senate committee

ISLAMABAD - The Senate Committee on Ports and Shipping revealed that NATO tankers in Pakistan are only paying Rs.450 handling charges at Port Qasim.
According to a private TV, the committee has taken exception to the fact that NATO tankers were free to roam the country without paying custom duties or any form of taxes.
In its response, the committee has summoned officials from the Defense Ministry and others concerned with the status of NATO tankers to their next meeting.

Senate body asks FO to summon Saudi envoy

ISLAMABAD - The Senate Standing Committee on Interior directed the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Saturday to call the ambassador of Saudi Arabia immediately and ask him to annul the decision of executing three Pakistanis as they had paid blood money (Diyat) to the heirs of the killed persons in Pakistan.
The Pakistani citizens had been awarded death sentence in a murder case in Saudi Arabia but they had not been released so far despite the payment of Rs 4 million as blood money

Remove Malik from the Senate: petition filed

LAHORE - The Lahore High Court (LHC) on Tuesday gave last opportunity to the federal government and the Senate's chairman to file replies by April 20 in connection with a writ petition seeking disqualification of Rehman Malik as senator on the basis of his removal from service. Mahfooz Ahmad, a local, moved the petition in which he submitted that Rehman Malik was removed from service in Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) in 1998 and as he was not eligible to be elected as a

Sindh affairs echo in Senate

ISLAMABAD - Senators on Friday put the debate on president's address to the joint sitting of parliament on second priority and raised other national issues.
Taking part in the debate, Senator Abdur Rahim Mandokhel urged the government to evolve a strategy for implementing the unanimous resolution passed by the joint sitting of the parliament.
Without referring anyone, he said those giving decree of murder were being patronised and protected. Without mentioning the culprits,

WAPDA yet to recover Rs 210b outstanding dues, Senate told

ISLAMABAD - Almost on the verge of a financial collapse, WAPDA has to recover Rs 210 billion from defaulters, with an estimated Rs 83 billion outstanding against various government departments and Rs 127 billion yet to be cleared by the private sector.
In a written reply, the Ministry of Water and Power told Senate on Thursday that WAPDA had to recover Rs 18,127 million from Punjab, Rs 15,247 million from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and FATA, Rs 36,669 million from Sindh and Rs 13,478

A day of walk-outs at Senate

ISLAMABAD - An unusual situation was witnessed in Senate on Tuesday when token walkouts were staged three times on Tuesday. The first walkout was staged by the MQM to protest Interior Ministry's failure to arrest extortionists in Karachi.
The second walkout was seen when Rehman Malik, Naveed Qamar, Mukhdoom Shahbuddin and Babar Awan left the house , saying it would be useless to debate different issues when there was no minister in house to reply. The third walkout took place to

Senate passes bill to rectify Code of Criminal Procedure

ISLAMABAD - The Senate on Friday unanimously passed two bills including 'The Code of Criminal Procedure (Amendment) Bill, 2010' and the Arbitration (International Investment Disputes) Act, 2010 Bill. The criminal procedure bill is aimed at providing relief to the accused languishing in jails for indefinite period due to delay in commencement of their trials due to various causes including the backlog of cases in the courts. Under the Bill titled "Code of Criminal Procedure (Amendment)

New media policy by June, Firdous tells Senate

ISLAMABAD - Minister for Information and Broadcasting Dr Firdous Ashiq Awan on Thursday informed Senate that new media policy was being formulated and efforts were under way to give it a legal cover before June this year. Replying to supplementary questions during the question hour, she said that it has been decided that members of both the parliamentary committees on information and broadcasting, representative of media, civil society and all stakeholders would be taken on board for

Govt owes Rs 83,522.47 million to WAPDA, Senate told

ISLAMABAD - The Senate was informed on Wednesday that various government departments owed Rs 83,522.47 million to WAPDA and its total recoverable amount across the country was Rs 210,784.64 million.
This was stated in written reply to a question. No supplementary question was raised in the House as the question-answer session was deferred because no minister or anyone who could speak on behalf of the government was present in the House.
Giving the province-wise breakup, the

Senate hopes for improved Pak-Afghan relations

ISLAMABAD - The Senate on Wednesday unanimously passed a resolution to condemn the Swabi Interchange blast in which several innocent people lost their life. The resolution moved by Senator Azam Khan Swati demanded the government hold an immediate investigation into the incident, identify the culprits and bring them to justice.
Speaking on the occasion, Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) Senator Ismail Buledi condemned the incident, saying the government had failed to provide

Senate passes amendments to election laws

ISLAMABAD - The Senate passed on Tuesday unanimously passed a bill to amend election laws to ensure security of the database of electoral rolls and make exhibition of CNIC mandatory for casting votes.
After the amendment in 'Election Laws (Amendment) Act, 2011', which will come into force at once, a new section 30A (after Section 30, Act XXI of 1974) would be inserted into the constitution whereby any employee of the Election Commission of Pakistan, if found guilty of breaching

Senate body seeks release of Pakistanis held by Somali pirates

ISLAMABAD - The senate body on Interior Saturday appealed to United Nation (UN) to play its role for the release of Pakistanis and other crew members taken as hostage by Somali pirates after hijacking three ships from the coast of Somalia. The Senate Standing committee that met with Senator Talha Mahmood in the chair directed Pakistani Foreign Office to pressurize the countries concerned for the release of 11 Pakistani hostages. Special Foreign Secretary Muhammad Haroon Shoukat told

Senate committee smells a rat in optic-fiber contract

ISLAMABAD - Expressing dissatisfaction over awarding contracts to different firms for optic-fiber lines, the Senate Standing Committee on Information Technology on Monday directed the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) to probe into the issue thoroughly otherwise the matter would be referred to the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) for investigation. The committee said that the contracts were given to different companies in violation of rules and the PTA should probe the

Senate Housing Society scam – Audit unveils irregularities worth over Rs...

ISLAMABAD - A special audit has identified irregularities worth Rs 51,504,835 by the ex-managing committee in connivance with the developer in the development expenditure and purchase of land of the Senate (Sectt) Employees Cooperative Housing Society Islamabad. According to the audit report, a copy of which is available with Pakistan Today, the development contractor M/s Raja Ishtiaq Associates was found involved in the financial irregularities worth of Rs 50,732,217. According to

Senate has no jurisdiction on sale of Bahawalpur lands

ISLAMABAD - Terming the sale of Bahawalpur lands solely a provincial matter, the Punjab government has rejected the concern expressed by the functional committee of the Senate on the problems of less developed areas vis-a-vis the sale of Bahawalpur lands at 'throw-away prices'. "Under the existing federal scheme envisaged by the constitution, the provincial government and its various departments are not accountable to the Senate or its committees.
As a necessary corollary, the