Some influential persons involved in Mashal Khan murder case have been placed on Schedule-IV while the Federal Investigation Agency is still investigating the case from different angles. The district police officer Mardan informed this to the National Assembly Standing Committee on Human Rights that met here with MNA Babar Nawaz Khan in the chair at the Parliament House on Friday.
The committee members recommended the police to take all necessary measures for conviction of all those involved in the gruesome murder.
A representative of Higher Education Commission also briefed the committee members about overall environment in the universities and steps initiated to curb extremism and terrorism in the universities. The director general Ministry of Human Rights urged the committee members to devise a cogent mechanism to curb incidents of extremism in the universities. He said the relevant authorities have been ignoring offenses committed by the students in the universities and a policy should be devised to monitor them.
The issue of affected people of Tarbela and Warsik dams also came under discussion and the committee members were informed that around 30,000 acres of land was due to be allotted to the people affected of these dams in Punjab and Sindh provinces. The committee was informed that total number of affected people was 2000. Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) MNA Sajid Nawaz informed the committee members that residents of his constituency were being charged excessive electricity bills while the fact is that majority of them is getting electricity through direct hooks instead of the meters.
He said the senior officials of the PESCO have also visited the area to see the illegal electricity connections. He complained the residents of his constituency have been being billed on estimation basis for last 20 to 25 years.
In the absence of meters, it was difficult to assess the actual use of electricity, he said, adding that 16-18 hours load-shedding is being observed in his area while people get the damaged transformers repaired on their own expenses. Sajid Nawaz also informed the committee that PESCO announced a waiver on electricity bills of consumers numerous times, but it was never implemented.
Frequent police raids have been conducted in the area, the people arrested on account of direct hooks and heavy fines imposed, he said, recommending that unjust outstanding amount against the consumers may kindly be waived off.
Nawaz also recommended the calculated remaining arrears may kindly be received in 20 to 30 or more instalments as permissible under the rules. The committee also constituted a sub-committee under the convener ship of Sahibzada Muhammad Yaqub and comprising Asiya Naz Tanoli, Sajid Nawaz and Begum Tahira Bukhari to resolve the issues of the affected people of Tarbela and Warsik dams as early as possible.
The committee also directed the sub-committee to provide MoU signed by WAPDA and the provincial government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in the shape of subsidy given by Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to WAPDA for the grid-stations of the affected people of the dams.
Regarding the briefing about missing persons, the head of Commission of Inquiry on Enforced Disappearances former Justice Javed Iqbal informed the committee that he wants to give a detailed briefing about the issue and this would be time-consuming.
He requested the committee to defer the agenda item till next meeting of the committee.
Earlier, the committee members condemned the incident of a journalist's murder in Sialkot and also decided to move a resolution on the brutal killing of Palestinians and Syrians on the floor of the National Assembly.
The committee also directed to write a letter to the Foreign Office to highlight the issue.