The Senate was informed on Wednesday that Frontier Works Organisation (FWO) is to pay Rs 5.75 billion to National Highway Authority (NHA), it has been withholding the amount since 2009 on the pretext of outstanding payments. In a written reply, Minister for Communication Dr Arbab Alamgir told the house that FWO is linking the outstanding amount to be paid with development projects, financed by government through Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP).
Earlier during the question hour, the senators rejected the answers being given to them, saying they were not correct. The State Minister for Communication Imtiaz Safdar Warriach, who was responding to queries of the senators on behalf of all the ministries, kept on insisting that all the information given to the house was correct. The enraged senators protested on his remarks and said that how he could claim of knowing everything, happening in the ministries and the chairman should ensure presence of the concerned ministers to seriously run the affairs of the house. They demanded the chair to refer the questions, for which wrong information was provided to the concerned committee, but the Warraich kept on saying that the issue can not be referred and he would personally meet the members and satisfy them, which was also endorsed by deputy chairman Senate Sabir Baloch.
The senators including Leader of the House Jehangir Bader rejected their plea and demanded to refer the matter to the concerned standing committee of Senate, which will look into the issue as why the house is being misguided on issues of national importance. Finally, the deputy chairman and the State Minister for Interior who were hell bent at first that the issue could not be referred to the committee, had to surrender to the voice of the majority and sent the matter to the Senate Standing Committee on Communication and Information Technology.