Pakistan has no plan to construct any road network to link China with Iran and Afghanistan through Pakistan, which has enhanced its road links with the neighbouring countries, including China, Afghanistan and Iran. This was stated by Federal Communication Minister Arbab Alamgir Khan in reply to a question in National Assembly on Thursday.
The National Assembly, which met with Speaker Fehmida Mirza in the chair, was informed that Pakistan was linked with China through N-35, passing through the Khunjrab Pass, with Afghanistan by N-5 via Torkham and N-25 via Chaman and with Iran by N-40 via Taftan. The house was informed that the government had spent Rs 183.589 billion for the construction and repair of the highways from 1999 to 2007, out of which Rs 32.942 billion were spent on repair and renovation of the highways, while Rs 150.647 billion on construction of new highways.
Dr Arbab Alamgir told the house that there were 58 development and rehabilitation projects of highways across the country. He also informed the house that the rehabilitation and up-gradation work on N-5 Lahore-Gujranwala section got delayed, but the work would be completed by September 30, as the government had issued notices to the contractors.
He said that the cause of delay was unprecedented price hike in construction material, internal clashes of contractors, shortage of fuel and bitumen and huge traffic rush on the highway. Replying to a question, Defence Minister Chaudhry Ahmed Mukhtar informed the house there were 17,954 army personnel working in Pakistan International Airlines (PIA), while the number was 18,058 on March 10, 2008.
Giving details of the army personnel working in PIA at present, the minister said that 4,282 army personnel were working in Engineering Department of the airline followed by 3,505 in Secretariats, 3,048 in flight operations, 2,140 in marketing, 1,672 in Human Resource, 1,378 in Planning, 732 in Finance, 674 in Pre-Engineering, 335 in Information Technology, 140 in Training and Development and 17 in Central Planning departments.
He also informed the house that PIA had not earned any profit on Haj flights during last three years. He said that total number of Haj flight during 2008 was 308, which included 82 from Karachi, 73 from Lahore, 60 from Islamabad, 62 from Peshawar and 31 from Quetta. The house was informed that 43 localities in Karachi were provided gas facility during the last one year, while in the next six months, 25 more localities in the city would be provided gas facility.
Environment Minister Hameed-ullah Jan informed the house that the Environment Ministry would never issue NoC to the CDA or any other organisation regarding the construction of any tunnel in Margalla Hills. He said that the Margalla Hills were declared protected area and the Federal government had raised the issue with the NWFP government to declare other side of the hills as protected area. The afforestation drive on Margalla would be increased, he added.
In replying to another question on Zero Point Interchange project, the Environment Minister informed the house that the major objections raised on the project were that the CDA did not submit the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) report, which was mandatory under section 12 of PEP Act 1997.
"We have served the notice on CDA on July 19, 2007 and the work was started in 2008. The CDA submitted the report to Pakistan Environmental Protection Agency," he said. Regarding ban on polythene bags, the Environment Minister informed the house that the government was raising the matter with the manufactures to convert it into environment-friendly object. After taking this step, the government would secure the jobs of over 600,000 people linked with this industry, he added.
The Environment Minister, in reply to another question, told the house that the government launched eight environmental projects in Punjab during 2007-08 and 2008-09, while no project was so far received for 2009-10.
The Human Rights Minister informed the house that during 2008-09, the Ministry of Human Rights received 5,149 complaints of human rights violations, out of which 690 complaints were received directly by the Ministry, while 1,695 complaints by regional office, Lahore; 2,102 by regional office, Karachi; 715 by regional office, Peshawar; and 628 by regional office, Quetta.
The Minister also informed the house that Ministry spent Rs 70.80 million on different awareness, training, curriculum development and consultancy projects. Norwegian Agency for Development (NORAD) and Swiss Agency for Development (SDC) and the government of Pakistan funded these projects, he added.