ISLAMABAD: (Parliament Times) The Senate was informed on Tuesday that 280 million rupees have been released for “Provision of Safe Drinking Water” project during the last four years.
Minister for Industries and Production Ghulam Murtaza Khan Jatoi told the House during question hour that under the project nation-wide assessment survey of more than ten thousand water supply schemes was conducted. He said a project for the capacity building of about three thousand professions associated with water supply agencies was completed during this period. He said six regional water quality laboratories Pakistan Council of Research in Water Resources have been upgraded and seventeen new water quality testing laboratories have been established at district level.
He said in a study heavy metal Arsenic was detected in 14 percent sources of water supply schemes above permissible limit of 50 parts per billion mainly in Sindh and Punjab. He said a study was conducted by PCRWR.
To a question, Minister for Law and Justice Zahid Hamid told the House that FBR is pursuing one hundred thousand new taxpayers every year since tax year 2013-14. He said FBR issued 100,019 notices to the persons, who are liable to file Income Tax Returns in the tax year 2015-16. He said that till date FBR has collected 3.1 billion rupees from the newly enlisted taxpayers.
Answering a question, Law Minister said the Privatization Commission has completed five privatization transactions during the tenure of the present government. He said all the transactions were made in a transparent manner after following the proper procedure.
Replying to a question, Zahid Hamid told the House that the 6th Population and Housing Census will start from 15th of this month and will be completed on 25th May this year. He said 14.5 billion rupees have already been allocated for census operation.
To another question, Minister for Planning and Development Ahsan Iqbal informed the House that Pakistan has become the first country to adopt Sustainable Development Goals in its development framework as it made SDGs as essential of Pakistan Vision 2025. He said Pakistan has devised integrated monitoring framework for sustainable development goals. He said Federal and provincial governments are productively engaged through different forums on sustainable development framework. He said an institutional mechanism is being established in the shape of SDG Support Unit linked with provincial SDG Units.
Responding to a calling attention notice moved by Sehar Kamran regarding the mentioning of Azad Jammu and Kashmir territory as “Pakistani Occupied area of Jammu and Kashmir” in the course books being taught in private schools in Islamabad which is highly objectionable and against the national interest, Minister of State for Capital Administration and Development Division Tariq Fazal Chaudhary told the House that as soon as the matter came in the notice of the Ministry all the books were confiscated. He said the publisher has apologized for the mistake and new version of the books after correction has been published.
He said the ministry has set up a curriculum wing to review the curriculum of the federal educational institutions and to make them according to the modern needs.
The House will now meet tomorrow at three in the afternoon.