Senate condemns killing of Chinese engineers: ban on wheat movement under fire

Strongly condemning the killing of three Chinese engineers, the Senate on Tuesday, through a unanimous resolution, demanded thorough investigation into the terrorist act.
Immediately after the recitation from the Holy Quran, Leader of the House, Wasim Sajjad, read out the resolution, supported by the opposition.
The resolution expressed profound grief over the tragedy and emphasised that the culprits should be brought to book. As agreed, copies of the resolution would be sent to the Chinese embassy and the family members of the victims.
The resolution said: "The House is proud of Pakistan-China deep-rooted friendship. Such terrorist acts could not affect time-tested and deep-rooted friendship between the two nations."
The engineers were killed in a terrorist attack on May 2 while working at Gwadar Port Project.
The other condolence resolution was to pay tribute to ex-senator Syed Mazhar Ali who died in an accident.
Combined opposition has a lot of issues in its kitty to be raised during the session they requisitioned. The major issue they spoke about was the inter-provincial ban on wheat movement by Punjab.
ANP president Asfandyar Wali described the ban a direct violation of Artcile-151 of the Constitution, saying "who can put restriction on wheat movement from one province to another?"
Minister for Food and Agriculture Yar Mohammad Rind was not present during the proceedings. Therefore, on his behalf, Minister for Industries Liaquat Ali Jatoi told the House that the minister concerned would reply to the senator's concerns on Wednesday. Asfandyar put some questions: was the government prepared to hold inquiry into the fact that millions of rupees loans were given to certain people to purchase wheat and hoard it for higher profit? Was the government ready to make commitment to place the names of these people before the House?
The senator questioned: would the government explain why the Australian wheat, rejected by Islamabad, was purchased by UAE and Indonesia, where measures were more stringent? He doubted the official claim that the commodity was unfit for human consumption.
He pointed out that some 250 flour mills in NWFP had been closed due to non-availability of wheat, and added that this was happening at a time when already the industry in the province was struggling to survive.
"I want to make one thing clear that if a child is dying because of hunger, his father will do everything, flouting the law and the Constitution to arrange some food for his child," he said.
He decried Punjab chief minister's statement that after meeting the procurement target of 3.5 million tons, the ban would be lifted, saying, "If this is the yardstick then other provinces can also resort to such measures". The target would never be met and it is the Centre's responsibility to stop the chief minister from depriving other provinces of food.
Aslam Buledi, Mohammad Ibrahim and others said the wheat crisis, stemming out of the ban, had forced the smaller provinces to issue statements which were unprecedented.
One province had made three other provinces to face food shortage, they said, adding that this situation was giving way to voices that gas supply would be suspended to rest of the country and Karachi Port would be closed.