Tag: Senate

ISLAMABAD - The Senate's functional committee on less-developed areas on Wednesday expressed concern over the "dubious" sale of 39 public properties in Bahawalpur at throwaway prices by the Punjab government and vowed to conduct a thorough inquiry into the matter. The meeting, which was held with chairman Dr Abdul Malik in the chair, out rightly rejected the notion of the Punjab government over the auction of lands worth above Rs 40 billion for only Rs 851 million and resolved to

ISLAMABAD - The Senate Standing Committee on Finance on Thursday called the monetary and credit policies announced by the State Bank of Pakistan during the last four years against rules for being in violation of the State Bank of Pakistan Act, as no meeting of Fiscal and Monetary Policies Coordination Board was held since 2007.
The committee, which met with Senator Ahmad Ali in the chair, criticised the SBP's announcement of monetary and credit policies without approval of the

ISLAMABAD - The Senate Standing Committee on Finance was told on Wednesday that the size of the Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP) had been reduced from Rs 242 billion to Rs 150 billion with a cut of Rs 92 billion. According to the Planning Commission presentation, Growth Strategy and Economic Reforms, given by Deputy Chairman Dr Nadeemul Haq, around 1,822 projects being executed all over the country at present with an estimated cost of Rs 4.080 trillion had faced

TUNIS - Tunisia's Senate was called on Wednesday to grant wide powers to the interim president struggling to restore order to the country following the overthrow of ex-leader Zine El Abidine Ben Ali. Caretaker Prime Minister Mohammed Ghannouchi told the upper house ahead of a vote on the measure to follow the lead of the lower house of parliament which on Monday authorized interim president Foued Mebaza to rule by decree.
"We are coming under social pressure because of the

ISLAMABAD - Differences have emerged between the National Assembly and the Senate and their house and library committees on Parliament Lodges' extension issue as MPs from the upper house want to give a go-ahead to the project at their joint meeting scheduled this week while MNAs are all set to resist the move.
Facing resistance from Opposition leader Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan last month after the inauguration of the ground-breaking ceremony of the Rs 3 billion project, Prime

ISLAMABAD - Federal Minister for Health Makhdoom Shahabuddin accepted in the Senate on Friday that used plastic bags of urine and blood and used syringes were being re-cycled to make plastic utensils that posed serious health risks to consumers.
"I will immediately probe the matter as it is of a serious nature. There are laws in the country that prohibit the re-cycling of such material, there is a need for deterrence," the health minister said while answering a question raised

ISLAMABAD - The Pakistan Steel Mills (PSM) should be privatized in a transparent manner if the government is failing to manage its finances, Senate standing committee on industries and production has recommended, adding that PSM was a 'bottomless pit' and no amount of cash can salvage it.
The recommendations came in the report of the senate standing committee on industries and production on "Financial Losses of PSM" which was presented in the Senate on Wednesday. It said PSM

ISLAMABAD - The Senate Standing Committee on Law, Justice and Human Rights and Parliamentary Affairs on Wednesday passed the Election Laws Amendment Bill 2011 with a few amendments. On Tuesday, the committee could not reach consensus over some clauses of the bill as Senator Raza Rabbani had opposed the formation of local commission, fearing, new body could be used for changing election results.
The committee amended some clauses and deleted the controversial clause for the

ISLAMABAD - Petroleum Minister Naveed Qamar on Tuesday in informed the Senate that Pakistan had 1,339.25 tonnes of gold reserves. During the question answer session in the Senate, Qamar said in a written reply that the country had 1,339.25 tonnes of gold reserves of which only 7.891 tonnes had been produced in the last five years.
He Pakistan had 1,275.75 tonnes of gold in the Reko Diq area, while the Saindak area had 63.50 tonnes of gold. The minister told the House that

ISLAMABAD -The Senate Standing Committee on Law, Justice and Human Rights and Parliamentary Affairs could not reach a consensus over the Election Laws Amendment Bill 2011. The bill was introduced by Senator Syed Nayyer Hussain Bokhari on behalf of the law minister to the committee that met here under the chairmanship of Senator Kazim Khan.
Senator Jehangir Badar, Senator Abdul Haseeb Khan, Senator Raza Rabbani and officials of the law ministry attended the meeting. Senator Raza

ISLAMABAD - A sub-committee of the Senate Standing Committee on Communication on Saturday accused Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani of diverting funds of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to Multan and Larkana. Multan is the hometown of Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani and Larkana - commonly known as the city of Bhuttos - is considered a PPP stronghold.
The committee met under Senator Zahid Khan and the meeting was attended by Senator Ismail Buledi, Planning Commission Secretary Sohail Ahmed,

ISLAMABAD - The Finance Ministry on Friday apprised the Senate of the fact that the officials at the State Bank of Pakistan and the Federal Board of Revenue cost Rs 24 million to the national exchequer on their visits abroad.
Ironically, these visits were meant to seek remedy against the financial crunch in which the Pakistani officials held talks with representatives of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) from October 2008 to November 2010. The Finance Ministry submitted

ISLAMABAD - The Parliament split in two on Friday over offering Fateha for the assassinated Punjab governor, Salmaan Taseer. On Senator Nilofar Bakhtiar's proposition, Senate Chairman Farooq Naek asked Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) Senator Abdul Khaliq Pirzada to lead the prayer for the slain PPP leader, but he refused to do so.
Later, the rest of the parliamentarians were offering Fateha for Taseer, MPs from Jamiat Ulema-I-Islam-Fazl also silently walked out of the House. It

ISLAMABAD - After facing defeat in National Assembly Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs on its proposed bill, the Pakistan Muslim League-Q has decided to get the Pakistan Sovereignty Bill 2010 passed by the Senate Standing Committee, as well as do lobbying in the lower house of the parliament for its passage.
The PML-likeminded is also supporting the legislation and its President Senator Salim Saifullah, who is also the chairman of senate body on foreign affairs, has declared

ISLAMABAD - Rejecting the second medical report about Shazia's death, Senate Standing Committee on Minorities' sub-committee on Monday called all the doctors involved in treating her to appear before the committee in its next meeting.
Shazia, 13-year-old Christian girl, had been allegedly killed by her employer, a Lahore based lawyer, in January 2010. The case is being heard in the Lahore High Court at present after suspects' acquittal from the session court. Allama Iqbal Medical

ISLAMABAD - The Senate Standing Committee on Commerce on Friday directed the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) to advertise the sales of land illegally purchased by the NICL in order to assess their actual value.
Chairing the committee's meeting, Senator Ilyas Ahmed Bilour rejected the value assessment of properties by FIA, saying the evaluation conducted by the agency appeared to be an attempt to give a clean chit to the suspects.
DG FIA Waseem Ahmed admitted they too were

ISLAMABAD - The high-ups of the ministries of Defence and Interior on Thursday admitted the presence of US marines in Quetta in a meeting of the Senate Sanding Committee on Defence, Pakistan Today has reliably learnt.
Officials of both ministries told the Senate body in an in-camera meeting that US marines were working as trainers in Balochistan. "The officials told the committee that US marines were training FC personnel in the province. In response, the committee members