The opposition parties including Pakistan People's Party, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf and Muttahida Qaumi Movement walked out of the National Assembly on Tuesday in protest against absence of Interior Minister Nisar Ali Khan from the House. The opposition parties said they would not join the session until the Interior Minister shows up. Later, the opposition parties rejoined the session when the Interior Minister came to the House.
MQM member Abdul Rashid Godail criticised the Interior Minister for not giving him a copy of inquiry report about attack on him in Karachi. PPP member Ejaz Jakhrani also criticised Interior Minister for his absence from the House, saying he should have been in the House to respond to concerns of the opposition members about the performance of his Ministry.
Earlier, members from the opposition parties while speaking on demands for grants said the Interior Ministry failed in implementation of the National Action Plan (NAP) that was formulated with the support of all political parties to stamp out terrorism from the country. PPP member Imran Zafar Leghari said the National Counter Terrorism Authority was made in 2012 and it was the duty of the PML-N government to strengthen it, but nothing concrete was done yet.
He said the Ministry also failed to introduce madrassa reforms and constitute a joint intelligence directorate to improve co-ordination with provinces to put an end to hate speech and terrorism. MQM member Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui said the Karachi operation had achieved nothing except squeezing a political party, the MQM. "Our 170 workers are still missing and it is the responsibility of the state to recover them," he said.
Winding up the debate, State Minister for Interior Baleegh-ur-Rehman counted achievements of the Ministry including formulation of National Internal Security Policy, National Action Plan and initiation of Operation Zarb-e-Azab against the militants. He said that all mobile phone SIMs have been verified, hate speech controlled and a counter terrorism force was set up as envisaged in the NAP. During his speech, the MQM members, however, chanted slogans against the government for what they called its failure to improve law and order in Karachi.
When demands for grants about Ministry of Water and Power were presented in the House, opposition members criticised the government for poor performance of the Ministry. The members said the Ministry failed to improve power supply situation in the country as power outages for 18 to 20 hours are still being observed in the rural areas. The members also leveled allegations of corruption in the Ministry and lack.
PTI member Ali Muhammad Khan urged the government to switch off air-conditions of the Parliament and all the public offices until people across the country get uninterrupted power supply. Winding up the debate, State Minister for Water and Power Abid Sher Ali said that his Ministry had started crackdown against corruption and the corrupt officials, besides running a campaign against those who steal electricity in Sindh and other parts of the country.
Talking about the receivables, he said the FATA owes Rs 52 billion, Balochistan under the head of tube-wells Rs 108 billion and Azad Jammu and Kashmir Rs 51 billion. The Minister informed the House that electricity generation has reached to its highest level at 17350 megawatts while load-shedding will come to an end by March 2018. He also presented details of different energy projects including wind and hydroelectric in Sindh, Khyber Pakhtunkhawa and Punjab.
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