The Senate was informed on Friday that the government was making all-out efforts to improve trade relations with India while decision will be taken after taking all stakeholders onboard. Responding to questions of the senators, Abbas Khan Afridi, federal minister for textile industry, said that the local industry was generally supportive of giving non-discriminatory market access to India on reciprocal basis.
He said that it would enable the local industry to procure cheap and competitive raw materials and intermediate goods from India which will lower their cost of doing business. "All the leading chambers of commerce, industries and trade association are positive regarding Pakistan-India trade normalisation process," he said.
The minister said that some elements in different sectors such as agriculture, auto-mobiles, synthetic yarn based textile and pharmaceuticals have expressed apprehensions that would be addressed appropriately. To a question, he said different cases of corruption and misappropriation worth Rs 2.270 billion surfaced in the National Insurance Company Limited (NICL), of which Rs 2.25 billion have been recovered while efforts were under way for the recovery of the remaining amount.
The senators belonging to opposition parties staged a token walkout from the House, saying privatisation of Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) is not being done in a transparent manner and according to the Constitution. Senators belonging to Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) also staged a token walkout from the House against non-issuance of passport and CNIC to their leader Altaf Hussain who has been living in self-exiled in London for last 22 years.
POLIO TRAVEL BAN Saira Afzal Tarar, State Minister for National Health Services, Regulations and Co-ordination, informed the Senate that only 0.5 percent of refusals to vaccinate the children were based on religious grounds.
Responding to an adjournment motion moved by opposition Senator Rubina Khalid of Pakistan People's Party (PPP), about international travel restrictions on Pakistan by the World Health Organisation (WHO), the state minister said that the issue was being discussed with the authorities concerned.
Ms Tarar said that the figures that flowed in from districts to provinces and then to the federal ministry put the success rate of the immunisation campaigns as high as 80 to 90 percent. "We could not be able to believe one's eyes," she added. According to the minister, Balochistan remained the least accessible province in terms of immunisation, with just 16% population immunised, followed by Sindh with 29%. Punjab has the highest level of immunisation with 68.5 %, while Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is at 52.5%.
Karachi, Peshawar and Fata - particularly North Waziristan - are areas where the strain of the polio virus is dangerous, the minister said while defending measures taken by the Punjab government for internal travel restrictions on people travelling from other provinces.
She also informed the Senate that around 1 million vaccination cards have been printed by the federal government, which would be sent to the provinces. However, local documents which are required by the provincial governments will be valid till June 1, she added. While the opposition has mostly been at loggerheads with the government in the Upper House, the leader of the opposition in the Senate, Aitzaz Ahsan, in a rare move assured the government of full support in any step to ensure the eradication of polio.
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