Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Dr Babar Awan Friday said the government was making all out efforts for the repatriation of Dr Afia Siddiqui from the United States. Replying to a point of order in the National Assembly, the minister said the prime minister during his meeting with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had raised the matter of Dr Afia Siddiqui and demanded her release.
"Though the issue of Dr Afia was created by the previous government, we are trying our best for her repatriation," he added. The minister said the government had allocated one million dollars to provide legal assistance to Dr Afia and asked her family to hire the solicitor of their choice. The minister said the government was taking every possible step in the case of Dr Afia.
The issue was raised by Memoona Hashmi of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz, while drawing the attention of the house towards ongoing protest of missing persons' families outside the Supreme Court. She said the families of missing persons had been living in a miserable condition in tents on Constitution Avenue for the last few days.
She said the government should recover all the missing persons as well as ensure early repatriation of Dr Afia from the US. The Minister for Industries and Production informed the house that theft incidents at various stores of Utility Stores Corporation (USC) had caused huge financial losses to the government. Giving details, the minister said the government suffered a loss of over Rs 90 million. After these incidents, the minister said, services of a company had been hired to ensure security of USC outlets.
According to the minister insurance company would pay the loss in case of any incident of theft at USC stores. Watto said theft incidents at various USC stores in different regions had caused over Rs 43 million losses to the entity during the last year. The minister said thefts had occurred in Mirpur Khas, Jhang, Haripure, Rajan Pur, Mardan and others regions.
This year, he said, the corporation suffered around Rs 50 million losses in 300 incidents of theft. He said, to prevent such incidents in the future, appropriate security measures had been adopted and the Corporation was in close co-ordination with the security institution to recover the stolen goods. The minister claimed that one incident of theft was traced out and the stolen goods were recovered.
Minister of State for Interior Tasneem Qureshi said provincial governments had been asked to implement judicial reforms for the welfare of the prisoners, particularly the minors. The minister was responding to a call attention notice of Yasmeen Rehman of Pakistan People's Party (PPP) and others regarding minors in Adiala Jail Rawalpindi and non-availability of facilities to the children of prisoner mothers in different jails of the country.
The minister said special arrangements for the provision of milk and education to the minors up to the age of seven years in jails as well as to their mothers had been made. He said provincial governments had also been asked to take steps for the provision of legal aid for the release of minors, besides paying fines for women prisoners so that they could be released from jails.