The upper house was informed on Friday that the government was taking measures to unblock YouTube after localising Google as per Pakistan Proposition of Electronic Crime Bill, 2014. Responding to a question, state minister for information technology Anusha Rehman said that currently, YouTube could not be opened as objectionable contents were still there, which were placed on https and there was no technology in the world to remove it.
She said that Islamabad High Court (IHC) had also asked Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) to determine what the objectionable contents were and how to block them. She said that the social utility network was shut down on September 17, 2012 on the orders of Supreme Court. The state minister claimed that technical experts were of the view that there was no technical solution to the issue that could guarantee 100 percent blockage of the objectionable contents on YouTube.
Minister for Trade, Khurram Dastagir, informed the house that Pakistan was facing trade deficit with 97 countries while its trade was in surplus with 98 countries. He said that after free trade agreement, trade deficit with China had reached $5.3 billion from $2.4 billion.
According to the minister, Pakistan is confronting trade deficit with UAE, China, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, India, Japan, Malaysia, Indonesia, Oman, Singapore and other countries. While the countries with which Pakistan has trade surplus are USA, Afghanistan, the UK, Bangladesh, Spain, Belgium Netherlands, Hong Kong, Italy and Turkey etc. Dastagir further said that the trade deficit with some countries was due to import of petroleum products, machineries and even fertilisers etc, which could not be reduced, as Pakistan had to continue its import at all costs.
He said that the government was reviewing the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with China, which is called FTA-II, in which the government of Pakistan was demanding more market access. To a question by Senator Zahid Khan about category-wise break up regarding membership criterion to enter Islamabad Club was not answered. Chairman Senate, Nayyar Hussain Bokhari, got angry and referred the question to privilege committee with direction to call Secretary Cabinet to explain the issue personally.
The senators also raised several questions over Islamabad-Rawalpindi Metro Bus project, which compelled the Senate Chairman to defer the questions and issue directives to the ministry to provide details of the project to members. Senator Sughra Imam of PPP questioned about cost benefit analysis of Metro Bus Project. However, Federal Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Sheikh Aftab was unable to tell the House about exact or estimated cost of the scheme.
Sughra questioned that how the cost benefit analysis would be made without knowing the cost of the project. Sheikh Aftab said that after getting information, he would send the details of Metro Bus project to every senator. Opposition leader in Senate Chaudhry Aitzaz Ahsan claimed that no tender was issued for Metro Bus Project. He said that the government should provide details of tendering process of metro bus scheme.
Senator Mushahid Hussain Sayed said that the metro bus project was not feasible in environmental point of view, adding that it had destroyed the beauty of the federal capital. "I have already challenged the project (metro bus [project) in Supreme Court of Pakistan," he added. The Chairman Senate deferred the question and said after getting inputs from the concerned ministry, there should be proper debate over the project. Over the report of joint committee on recent petrol crises, Senator Zahid Khan said that the crisis was due to incompetence of three ministries - petroleum, water and power and finance - but no one was ready to take responsibility.
"This was a complete failure of the government and it must not blame the media for creating hype. The media highlighted the issue and we appreciate it," he added. A report on implementation of NFC Award from July to December 2013, Gas Infrastructure Development Ordinance, Companies Ordinance Amendment Bill and Stock Exchange Amendment Bill was also presented in Senate. The session was prorogued sine die.
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