ISLAMABAD:
Federal Minister for Law and Justice Azam Nazeer Tarar assured that the issue of missing persons in Balochistan will be addressed 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 stressed that while maintaining law and order was primarily the responsibility of the provincial government, the concerns raised would be communicated to the minister of interior for prompt action.
The government, he assured, remains fully committed to resolving this human rights issue effectively.
During the session, in response to a question from Haji Hidayat, Tarar addressed the issue of the Benazir Income Support Program (BISP).
He revealed that in the last five years, a sum of over Rs 14 million had been misappropriated from the programme, but almost Rs seven million had already been recovered. However, he downplayed the magnitude of the financial discrepancy, explaining that “in the distribution of 12 billion or 14 billion rupees, a loss of 140 million rupees is not that big of a problem.”
He further added, “There has been some negligence and slowness in the matter, but compared to such a huge amount, the discrepancy of Rs 140 crore is minimal.”
The session continued with Tarar emphasizing that government institutions should not engage in commercial activities, noting that state-owned enterprises incurring losses have been a burden on the national treasury.
Riots in KP
Later, Senator Aimal Wali Khan took up the issue of the ongoing unrest in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, accusing the State of intentionally exacerbating the situation.
He recalled Pakistan’s past support for the Taliban during the regime of former military leaders, attributing much of the current unrest to these historic decisions.
Internet outages
The House later also echoed concerns over repeated internet outages.
Responding to questions from Senator Muhammad Aslam Abro on the issue, the ministry placed the blame on technical issues.
However, the legislator lamented that while the world has reached the moon, Pakistan has still not been able to resolve the issue in a year.
Minister of State Shaza Fatima responded that the PTA had doubled the country’s frequency in the last two years and reported a 33% increase in IT exports over the last five months.
PIA
Senator Zeeshan Khanzada sought clarification on the status of new hires, noting that no one was willing to buy PIA because it has excessive number of employees.
