Islamabad: (Parliament Times) The National Assembly resumed its session in Islamabad on Tuesday morning with Deputy Speaker Murtaza Javed Abbasi in the chair.
The House is transacting private members’ business.
Responding to a calling attention notice moved by Shakila Luqman and others regarding non-existence of laboratories for quality control of food items in Islamabad, Parliamentary Secretary for Interior Dr Muhammad Afzal Khan Dhandla told the House that facility for testing of food items is available at National Institute of Health.
He said Food Authority is being set up to address this issue and a draft bill in this regard has been prepared and sent to the Ministry of Law. He pointed out that after the establishment of food authority more facilities for testing of food items will be available.
The Parliamentary Secretary said under the directions of Chief Commissioner Islamabad raids are being conducted on food outlets to check its quality. He said concerned authorities also take action against the responsible if any food item is found substandard.
Responding to another calling attention notice moved by Sahibzada Muhammad Yaqoob regarding poor performance of PESCO in District Dir Lower due to shortage of staff, Minister of State for Water and Power Abid Sher Ali informed the House that further recruitment in the company is being made which will help improve its performance. He said the merit-based recruitment will be ensured.
Twelve bills were introduced in the National Assembly today.
These are “The Religious Scholars, Ulema and Pesh Imams (Prayers Leaders) Welfare Bill, 2017”, “The Provincial Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Bill, 2015”, “The Witness Protection, Security and Benefit Bill, 2016”, “The Law Reforms (Amendment) Bill, 2016, “The Land Acquisition (Amendment) Bill, 2016”, “The Code of Civil Procedure (Amendment) Bill, 2016”, “The Anti-Terrorism (Amendment) Bill, 2016” and “The Criminal Law (Amendment) Bill, 2016”.
The bills also include “The National Counter Terrorism Authority (Amendment) Bill, 2017”, “The Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (Amendment) Bill, 2017”, “The Representation of the People (Amendment) Bill, 2017” and “The Prohibition of Corporal Punishment Bill, 2017”.
The chair referred these bills to the standing committees concerned.
The National Assembly today passed “The Federal Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education (Amendment) Bill, 2017”.
The bill moved by Amra Khan provides to further amend the Federal Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education Act, 1975.
Speaking on the bill, Amra Khan said after this legislation more educational institutions across the country will be able to affiliate themselves with the Federal Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education.
The National Assembly today passed a resolution urging the government to take immediate steps to establish a Women University in each district of the country. It was moved by Shakila Luqman.
Speaking on the resolution, Minister of State for Federal Education and Professional Training Muhammad Baligh-ur-Rehman told the House that Higher Education Commission is implementing a comprehensive plan to set up university or a campus in each district of the country.
He said education is priority of the government and efforts are underway that no one will remain uneducated. He pointed out that at present there are 14 women universities in public sector and more are being established. He said in Balochistan campus of Sardar Bahadur Khan University are being set up in Khuzdar, Pishin and Nushki districts and allocations for this purpose have been made in the PSDP. He emphasized that the federal government is encouraging the provincial governments to establish women universities.
Baligh-ur-Rehman said education statistics are improving in the education sector as a result measures taken by the government. He said the percentage of out of school children has been decreased from 6.7 million in 2012-13 to five million in 2015-16. He said budgetary allocation for education has also been increased during the last three years and it is now closed to 2.5 percent of GDP. He said the government is also focusing on applied research in universities. He said standard of public sector universities are also improving and ten universities have been included in the three hundred best universities of Asia.
Earlier, the members demanded that colleges and universities will be established in all parts of the country particularly Balochistan and FATA to promote education and enhanced literacy rate. They also demanded for more allocation for education sector. They stressed for setting up of vocational institutes for technical education.
The National Assembly today passed a joint resolution unanimously strongly denouncing the circulation of objectionable material about Holy Prophet [PBUH] and his companions on the social media.
The resolution was jointly moved by Muhammad Safdar and Naeema Kishwar Khan.
The resolution said the objectionable material is hurting the sentiments of the Muslims.
The resolution urged the government to take necessary steps to block the objectionable material on social media.
The House adopted a motion authorizing Speaker National Assembly to constitute a ten-member special committee to suggest measures for blocking the sacrilegious and blasphemous material on social media and action against the responsible persons for this crime.
The House will now meet tomorrow morning at 10:30.
