ISLAMABAD: The Standing Committee on Cabinet Secretariat on Tuesday expressed displeasure over the attitude of bureaucracy for not taking the parliamentary business seriously and took serious notice of the National Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra)’s chairman’s non-attendance of its meeting.
The committee, which met with Kishwer Zahrain the chair, decided not to take briefing from officials of the Nepra till the chairman of the authority attends the meeting of the committee.
The chairperson, while taking notice of the absence of the Nepra chairman in the meeting, said that the public had been facing issues of unannounced power outages and low voltage throughout the country while the regulator, Nepra’s attitude was indifferent.
She said that the power distribution companies were continuously sustaining distribution and transmission line losses and nothing was being done in that regard. She said that ultimately the sufferer was the general public.
The committee also directed for ensuring in-person attendance of Nepra chairman in its next meeting.
The committee also expressed its concern over non-establishment of tribunals required to be established under section 7 of the Pakistan Telecommunication (Re-organisation) Act, 1996 since the passage of substantial time.
The committee decided to call Secretary Ministry of Information Technology and Telecommunication in its next meeting to know the reasons behind that delay.
The officials of the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority apprised the committee that the matter was pending in the IT and Telecom Ministry since the administration of the said Act fell under its purview.
The committee, while taking up starred question moved by GhausBux Khan Mahar, MNA referred to the committee by the House proposed that Cabinet Division should be kept in the loop by all the ministries/divisions while moving summaries of visits of ministers and public functionaries, abroad irrespective of the expenditure borne by the public exchequer or sponsored by donor agencies/governments.
The mover of the question contended that presently the country was going through financial crunch and utmost care should be adopted while undertaking visits abroad. The committee decided to take the issue in its next meeting.
Officials of the Islamabad Club told the committee that the Club was working under the IC Ordinance 1978 with the president of Pakistan as its patron and an officer of not lower than a Grade 21 officer as its administrator.
They further apprised that the Club was an autonomous body, self-sustaining and non-recipient of any grant or funds from government exchequer.
They further apprised that the accounts of the Club were subject to multiple tiers of internal and external audits.
The meeting was attended by Mohammad Sajjad, Shahnaz Saleem Malik, Seema Mohiuddin Jameeli, Mir Ghulam Ali Talpur, Mussarat Rafiq Mahesar, Ahmad Raza Maneka, Mohsin Dawar, Rana Iradat Sharif Khan, Additional Secretary Cabinet Division and senior officers of concerned departments.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2023
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