The Senate was informed on Tuesday that the country has a total gold reserve of 1,339.25 tons combined at Reko-Diq and Saindak, with 1,275.75 tons and 63.50 tons at both the places respectively.
In a written reply to the House by Minister for Petroleum and Natural Resources Syed Naveed Qamar, revealed that Reko-Diq with a total gold reserve of 1,275.75 tons and Saindak with 63.50 tons of gold, were the two major gold reserves situated in district Chagi, Balochistan. Qamar said that Saindak was available with 70.59 tons of silver reserves, while in Reko-Diq it was not quantified.
He said that according to reports there were deposits of gold and silver in various parts of the country including Balochistan, Gilgit-Baltistan and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa.
The Minister further informed that the Saindak Copper-Gold Project, Balochistan is the only project in the country, which is producing gold/silver as a by-product in a normal quantity.
He further informed that the gold production was 7.891 tons and silver 11.293 tons during five years from 2005 to 2009. Giving a five-year breakup of the production of gold and silver during the said period showed that the gold was 1.771 tons in 2005, while silver 2.509 tons. In 2006, the production of gold was 1.410 tons, while silver was 2.403 tons, in 2007 gold was 1.576 tons and silver 2.136 tons, in 2008 gold was 1.542 tons and silver 2.088 tons, while in 2009, the gold production was 1.592 tons and silver 2.157 tons.
Meanwhile, Advisor to the Prime Minister Ghazanfar Ali Gul informed the House that work is underway on Chashma Nuclear Power Project Phase-II, which will be completed by September this year. He said that an amount of Rs 55.970 million has been allocated in PSDP for C-2 project in FY 2010-11 as local/foreign exchange component. He added that so far an amount of Rs 86.40 million in local/foreign exchange and Rs 605.33 million in foreign aid has been released in current fiscal year, which is only 20.67 percent of the allocation.
Minister for Water and Power Raja Pervez Ashraf told the House that Diamir Bhasha Dam project is expected to complete in next seven to eight years at a cost of over $11 billion. He said that the initial work on project has already been launched and when completed it would be the biggest ever hydropower project in the country, which will have water reservoir capacity of eight million acres, besides generating 4500 megawatt electricity.
He said land acquisition process was underway for which the federal government has provided Rs 1 billion in the current financial year, while overall 13,000 acre land will be acquired for the project, which is being funded by Asian Development Bank (ADB), Islamic Development Bank (IDB), Japanese Bank and USAID.
To a question, he said that all-out measures would be taken for rehabilitation of affected of the dam, adding that the government will construct special housing projects for those who have been displaced due to the project.
To another question, the minister said that work was also underway on eight hydropower projects in public sector, which will be completed next year. He said feasibility study of 14 wind power generation projects has also been completed and financial closure of four of these projects is expected within next six months.
Ashraf to another question told the House that an amount of Rs 17, 105.670 million was provided as subsidy on behalf of the consumers to Peshawar Electric Supply Company (PESCO) during 2009-10, Rs 15, 392.441 million in 2008-09 and Rs 21, 951.001 million in 2007-08.
To a supplementary question, he said that Punjab and Sindh have opposed giving subsidy on agriculture tube-wells, while Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan favoured it. Meanwhile, Minister for Religious Affairs Syed Khurshid Shah informed the House that keeping in view the difficulties faced by the Hajj pilgrims last year it has been decided to finalise all Hajj arrangements by April for next Hajj.
He said the government was trying to bring down Hajj expenditures at the level of Rs 200, 000 for regular Hajj scheme, besides reducing expenditures in Mina. He further said that various steps have been taken to avoid difficulties for pilgrims in the next Hajj season. He said Hajj applications would be received from April 10 from intending pilgrims.
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