ISLAMABAD: The Senate Standing Committee on Cabinet Secretariat on Thursday was informed that K-Electric (KE) has removed six officials from service involved in an incident which caused the death of one person due to not following safety protocols.
While briefing the Senate Standing Committee on Cabinet Secretariat held here under the chairmanship of Senator Rana Maqbool Ahmad, Chairman National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (NEPRA) Tauseef Farooqi in response to a question raised by Senator Engr Rukhsana Zuberi, apprised the panel that all of the persons involved in the incident have been removed from service.
Senator Zuberi informed the panel that K-electric did not pay any monetary compensation to injured persons in the incident.
Responding to Senator Zuberi, Chairman NEPRA informed that the compensation was not paid because the injuries were not of severe nature.
Senator Rana Maqbool Ahmad showed distress over the recent incident of transformer blast in Kahna area of Lahore which caused five deaths. He directed the Chairman NEPRA to conduct an inquiry of the matter and present the report in the next meeting.
In response to the matter of ownership of different properties including hotels of Pakistan Tourism Development Corporation (PTDC) raised by Senator Mohsin Aziz on 16th November 2021, Managing Director (MD) PTDC Aftabur Rehman Rana said that the PTDC has shifted its goal from managing hotels to provincial coordination and promotion and publicity of tourism after the promulgation of 18 Constitutional Amendment. The PTDC is planning to handover all his properties located in different provinces to the concerned provincial governments with aim of 90 percent revenue of these properties will go to the provincial governments and 10 percent to the PTDC, he added. So far four out of six properties in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa have been handed over to KP government and they are still in negotiations with Balochistan government; however, Sindh government has been refusing to pay 10 percent to PTDC, he further informed.
Chairman Committee Rana Maqbool Ahmad was of the view that the surveillance trip should be organized to visit these properties and examine their condition physically.
The Committee considered the public petition PP-4078 regarding provisions of disabled quota in BPS-17 posts in the Federal Government Department. Additional Secretary Establishment Division informed that “Disabled Persons Ordinance, 1981” and “ICT Rights of Person with Disabilities Act 2020” provide two percent quota for disabled persons on a total number of vacancies in different cadres including BPS-17. Senator Rana Maqbool Ahmad stressed that the disabilities of disabled persons should also be kept in mind while assigning different positions to them.
While discussing the questions of Senator Walid Iqbal who asked: “Will the officers of National Assembly and Senate can be posted on the positions of Deputy Commissioners and Commissioners and Chief Secretaries of four provinces,” Senator Walid Iqbal opined that according to “Civil Service of Pakistan Rules and Service Rules of Provincial Civil Services, 1954”,only the officers of Pakistan Administrative Service (PAS) and Provincial Management Service can be assigned to the positions of Deputy Commissioners and Commissioners.
Moreover, only the officers of PAS can be assigned as Chief Secretaries of four provinces. However, there are few instances in which the officers of Audit Group have been assigned as Chief Secretaries of Sindh, he added. Additionally, the authorities say that the 1954 Service Rules were made as a result of an agreement but they failed to produce a copy of the agreement and the minutes of the meeting, he claimed.
Senator Rana Maqbool Iqbal directed the Establishment Division to provide comprehensive details on the matter in the next meeting.
The Committee also considered the public petition PP-3745 with respect to lease of 170 acres of land, acquired by MK Pakistan from Balochistan Coastal Development Authority in 2013. Additional Director NAB apprised the committee that NAB has started an investigation in May 2019 on the application of the secretary of Cabinet Division and in investigation it was found that the aforementioned 170-acre land belongs to PTDC. The petitioner informed that, after finding out that the land belongs to the PTDC, we started negotiations with PTDC and the latter reconsider it in 2015 with the condition of approval of Prime Minister and which was eventually approved by the PM.
However, Managing Director PTDC refused to accept all the claims made by the petitioner. The Chairman Committee Senator Rana Maqbool Ahmad deferred the matter for further deliberations till the next meeting.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2022
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