ISLAMABAD:
Federal Minister for Law and Justice Azam Nazeer Tarar has assured that the issue of missing persons in Balochistan will be dealt with in accordance with the legal framework and relevant laws.
Speaking in the Senate on Wednesday in response to Senator Kamran Murtaza, Tarar announced that the government has recently set up a commission to address this critical issue.
He emphasized that while maintaining law and order was primarily the responsibility of the provincial government, the concerns raised would be conveyed to the Home Secretary for prompt action.
The government, he assured, remained fully committed to effectively addressing this human rights issue.
During the session, in response to a question from Haji Hidayat, Tarar addressed the issue of Benazir’s Income Support Program (BISP).
He disclosed that during the last five years, an amount of over 14 crore rupees had been embezzled from the scheme, but nearly seven crore rupees had already been recovered. However, he played down the extent of the financial discrepancy, explaining that “in the distribution of 12 or 14 hundred billion rupees, a loss of Rs 140 million is not such a big problem”.
He further added, “There has been some negligence and inertia in the matter, but compared to such a huge amount, the discrepancy of Rs 140 million is minimal”.
The session continued with Tarar stressing that state institutions should not engage in business activities, noting that loss-making state-owned enterprises have been a burden on the national exchequer.
Unrest in KP
Later, Senator Aimal Wali Khan raised the issue of the ongoing unrest in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and accused the state of deliberately aggravating the situation.
He recalled Pakistan’s past support for the Taliban under the regime of former military leaders and attributed much of the current unrest to these historic decisions.
Internet disruptions
Later, the Parliament also expressed concern about the repeated internet disruptions.
In response to Senator Muhammad Aslam Abro’s question on the issue, the ministry blamed technical problems.
However, the lawmaker lamented that though the world has reached the moon, Pakistan was still unable to solve the problem in a year.
Foreign Minister Shaza Fatima responded that the PTA had doubled the country’s frequency over the past two years and reported a 33% increase in IT exports over the past five months.
PIA
Senator Zeeshan Khanzada sought clarification regarding the status of the new recruits while pointing out that no one was willing to buy PIA because it has too many employees.
