Leaving meeting without permission: Officials snub NA body's recommendation of 'grim action' against bureaucrat

ISLAMABAD: Senior officials of the federal government on Thursday apparently gave a cold shoulder to the National Assembly's Standing Committee on Climate Change that recommended the 'grim action' against a serving bureaucrat over leaving the committee meeting without permission of the chair.

Presided over by Munaza Hassan from the ruling party Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), the committee meeting was caught in apparent embarrassment after Minister of State for Climate Change Zartaj Gul Wazir, Secretary Ministry of Climate Change (MoCC) Naheed Durrani and acting chairman Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (OGRA) Noor-ul-Haq did not attend the NA panel's meeting.

"Where is the minister? Where is the secretary? Why are they not here today?" the committee's chairperson asked. "The minister is a lawmaker and she must be well aware of the sanctity of the Parliament and its committees," she said.

The committee then summoned the minister and the secretary MoCC in the next meeting.

The committee was left fuming when MoCC additional secretary Joudat Ayaz, who was representing the ministry in the absence of minister and the secretary, left the meeting while it was underway without informing the chair. "Even the civil servants have the audacity to leave the meetings of Parliamentary committee without permission of the chair. What to talk about ministers," the committee's chairperson said.

The committee recommended "grim action against the additional secretary MoCC for his irresponsible behavior" and asked the authorities concerned to submit the related report to the committee.

The committee showed its displeasure over acting chairman OGRA for not attending the committee's meeting. The committee members said the acting chairman OGRA was summoned in the previous meetings but he did not show up. The committee summoned him in the next meeting.

The NA panel rejected as unsatisfactory a briefing given by Petroleum Division on the upgrade and shifting of fuel specification to Euro-V technology and asked the officials of the Petroleum Division to "come prepared next time."

The committee recommended reviewing rules of business related to forestry in Punjab to equip the provincial forest department to conduct fruit tree plantation instead of fuel wooden trees. The committee also recommended to promote olive trees on war footing and was of the view that all provinces of Pakistan discourage the plantation of eucalyptus tree due to the reason that it consumes extra water with Pakistan already faced with severe water shortage.

The committee members including Dr Haider Ali Khan, Tahir Sadiq, Rai Muhammad Murtaza Iqbal, Naureen Farooq Ibrahim Khan, Sabir Hussain Kaim Khani, Tahira Aurangzab, among others as well as senior government officials attended the meeting.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2020