ISLAMABAD: A Senate panel on Monday asked the government to take immediate steps for the supply of gas to the newly-merged tribal districts, and ensure provision of required funds to complete the process as soon as possible.

The Senate Standing Committee on States and Frontier Regions (SAFRON), which met with Senator Taj Mohammad Afridi in the chair, reviewed in detail, the proposed supply of natural gas to various tribal districts.

After taking briefing from the concerned departments, the committee observed the people of the tribal districts continue to face deprivation due to the non-provision of gas, and also directed the concerned department to expedite the process.

Senator Taj Mohammad Afridi said that the members of the Standing Committee had visited different districts of the former FATA, saying that the people were still deprived of their basic necessities and provision of the natural gas was their basic right.

He said that the tribal districts were facing deprivation because of the non-availability of the required funds by the government.

He urged the government to immediately release the required funds for the project, so that the process of supply of gas to the former FATA was completed.

It was decided that the committee would hold its next meeting in Peshawar to get a detailed briefing from all the concerned agencies and officials.

The chairman of the committee stated that the issue had to be resolved in any case, and this was the basic right of the people of erstwhile FATA.

Senior officials of the Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited (SNGPL) informed the committee that the department was in touch with the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa government in that regard.

They further told the panel that if the provincial government provided the required funds, those projects could be implemented.

Planning and Development Department, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, senior official told the committee that the provincial government had to pay a huge amount of Rs6.8 billion for the project and it was being under consideration.

Reviewing the current situation of the temporarily displaced persons (TDPs) of the former FATA, the committee took strong notice of the difficulties faced by the TDPs of Rajgal area and for non-granting them the TDP status.

The panel observed that due to counter-terrorism operations, a large number of people of ex-FATA were still living as TDPs and hundreds of families in Rajgal had not been given the status of TDPs as yet.

Committee member Senator Usman Kakar said as a result of the counterterrorism operations, the people of the FATA left their homes and lived in camps and different areas as TDPs following everything were destroyed due to the operations.

He said that the government had also announced a special package for those areas but it was very painful that the financial assistance provided was very inadequate, and that was why a large number of people were living in very difficult situations.

He said that many people were still not allowed to go to their homes and they were not being recognized as TDPs.

The officials of the Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA) told the committee that their registration could be done because of the two different addresses on their national identity cards, while the registration process had already been completed now.

However, the committee recommended that a special concession should be made with the people belonging to these areas, and appropriate steps should be taken for their registration and the same facilities of the TDPs should also be provided to them.

Senator Aurangzeb Orakzai pointed out the committee had repeatedly passed the same directions and non-implementation of the parliamentary panel was breach of its privilege.

Giving a detailed briefing to the standing committee on the problems faced by the transporters and the people at Torkham Pakistan-Afghanistan border crossing, and the obstacles in trade activities, the Customs officials said that the transit process had been made easier in light of the directives of the standing committee.

They sad that appropriate steps had been taken to remove obstacles in the process that had resulted in reduction of the pressure at the transit point, and increased the flow of the vehicles.

The committee directed the department concerned that more facilities be provided to vehicles for export purposes.

He also thanked the civil administration, security agencies and other departments for their help in overcoming the difficulties due to the inter-institutional cooperation.

The committee took notice of the ongoing protest by students of the ex-FATA at Bahauddin Zakaria University, Multan.

The committee was informed that the Punjab government had approved provision of free education to the students belonging to the tribal districts, but the university had reversed the orders.

The committee decided that a detailed report on the issue would be taken from the Punjab Department of Higher Education.

The meeting was attended by senators, Haji Momin Khan Afridi, Aurangzeb Khan, Mohammad Ayub, Attaur Rehman, Hilalur Rehman, Rana Mahmoodul Hassan, Mohammad Usman Kakar, and Anwar Lal Din, besides representatives of the Ministry of Sarfon, the PDMA, the HEC, and other concerned departments.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2020