ISLAMABAD: National Assembly Speaker Asad Qaiser has referred the issue of agriculture tube well subsidy for farmers to the National Assembly's Standing Committee on Finance with the directions to submit the report to the House within 10 days.
On a calling attention notice moved in the National Assembly on Friday by Sardar Talib Hassan Nakai, Haji Imtiaz Ahmed Choudhary, Syed Faizul Hassan, and Khawaja Sheraz Mehmood regarding enormous electricity bills of tube wells, and non-payment of subsidy to the farmers community, the speaker directed the Minister for Power, Petroleum and Natural Resources, Omar Ayub Khan, to direct chief executive officers (CEOs) of power distribution companies to meet with the farmers for resolving their problems.
Speaking on the floor of the House, Ayub said Finance Ministry was devising a mechanism for paying Rs62 billion subsidy for agriculture tube wells, and the Ministry of Energy was the executing authority for giving subsidy.
He said that the prime minister had issued instructions to the Finance Ministry to support the agriculture sector in that regard.
The flat rate of Rs5.35 per unit was announced for agriculture tube wells, he said, adding that the fluctuations in the rate of fuel adjustment surcharge, and general sales tax also varied, creating impact on the overall flat rate.
"The actual subsidy was Rs29 billion and after adding fuel adjustment surcharge the subsidy rose to Rs51 billion and after including general sales tax and fluctuation in dollar-rupee ratio, the accumulative subsidy on agriculture tube wells reached Rs62 billion," Ayub said.
Furthermore, the National Assembly was informed that free-of-cost treatment is being provided to AIDS patients at designated centres across Pakistan.
Responding to a calling attention notice moved by Mariyum Aurangzeb and others regarding increase in AIDS-related deaths in the country, the parliamentary secretary for National Health Services Dr Nausheen Hamid said 45 centres for the treatment of AIDS were working all over the country.
She said there were around 183,000 estimated AIDS patients, while only 25,000 people were registered.
"There is a big stigma attached to AIDS and people prefer to conceal this disease and only come to get themselves registered in case of critical condition," she said.
Hamid said reuse of injection syringes, unsafe blood transfusion and mishandling of hospital waste were the main reasons behind spread of the disease.
She said the federal government was taking serious steps regarding injection safety, one-time use of disposable syringes, safe blood transfusion, and hospital waste management. In addition, two reports on as many legislative proposals, and six periodical reports of various standing committees were presented in the National Assembly. A report of Standing Committee on Finance, Revenue and Economic Affairs on the Loans for Agricultural, Commercial and Industrial Purposes (Amendment) Bill, 2019 was presented.
Another report of Standing Committee on Law and Justice about the Code of Civil Procedure (Amendment) Bill, 2020 was also laid in the House.
Both reports were presented in the House by a member of both committees, Syed Naveed Qamar.
A total of six periodical reports of Standing Committees on Climate Change, Public Accounts Committee, Defence Production, Human Rights, National Food Security and Research and Government Assurances were presented in the House for the period of January-June, 2019 as required by rule 234-A of the Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in the National Assembly, 2007.
Later, Parliamentary Reporters Associations (PRA) staged a walkout from the press gallery during the proceedings of the House in protest of non-payment of salaries to working journalists by various media houses.
The speaker sent State Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Ali Muhammad Khan for holding negotiations with the PRA.
Khan later informed the House about his discussion with the journalists on the issue.
The speaker referred the issue of non -payment of salaries to working journalists to the National Assembly's Standing Committee on Information and Broadcasting.
Meanwhile, National Assembly Speaker Asad Qaiser nominated Senate Chairman Sadiq Sanjrani to contest election for the post of President of Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU), a global organisation of national parliaments. Election for IPU president will be held in December this year. The IPU has 179 members.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2020