Ruling coalition gulf widening

An apparent gulf in the ranks of ruling coalition following local bodies elections appeared to further widen on Monday when Minister for Parliamentary Affairs refused to reply on behalf of absent Ministers.
The Shaukat Aziz administration faced great embarrassment as angry treasury members continued their boycott and refrained from attending the proceedings of National Assembly.
The situation started worsening right from the start of the proceedings, as no concerned minister or parliamentary secretary was present to respond to the very first question during question hour.
The first question was raised regarding province-wise strength of Grade 21 and 22 officers presently working in various ministries and divisions along with the number of women officers among them.
But no minister was in a position to respond to the question from Inayat Begum.
Muhammad Yaqub, Deputy Speaker, asked Parliamentary Minister Sher Afgan to respond on behalf of the absent minister, but he showed his inability.
The Chair then requested Law Minister Wasi Zafar to give an appropriate answer, who too failed to give any satisfactory reply.
Most of the questions pertained to Ministry of Water and Power, but replies of the Parliamentary Secretary for Water and Power, Shahzadi Umar Tiwana were also challenged by opposition.
Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz made a brief appearance in the House. Law Minister Wasi Zafar apprised him of the situation and then held a brief meeting with parliamentary affairs minister.
Other treasury members also did not take any interest in proceedings and were quite busy chit-chatting during the whole question hour.
The opposition members staged a noisy protest over the non-serious attitude of the Shaukat Aziz administration and said there should be a punitive action against concerned absent ministers.
Liaqat Baloch from Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA) said there were reports that President Musharraf had directed the ruling coalition members to make their presence sure in the House but the situation was deteriorating.
Meanwhile, the House was informed that the government had suffered a heavy loss, of nearly Rs 280.4 million, during the last three years due to pilferage of electricity.
As per details, the loss suffered in Punjab was around Rs 39.6 million, Rs 86.6 million from NWFP, Rs 104.8 million in Sindh and Rs 49.4 million in Balochistan.
In reply to a question, the law minister informed the National Assembly that there was no woman presently working on BS-22 in the country.
Umar Tiwana said the raising of Mangla Dam project would cost nearly Rs 62.55 billion. So far the government has spent Rs 7.4 billion and the project would be completed on June 30, 2007.
The House was also informed that the amount of hydel profit payable to the NWFP as Rs 6 billion per annum has been paid for the said period. But the government figures were challenged by opposition members, as they said NWFP royalty is more than Rs 354 billion.
It was further stated that total installed capacity of nuclear power stations is 467 MW and Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission is installing another 300 MW nuclear power station at the same location ie Chashma (Mianwali) which is expected to be completed by the year 2011.