Islamabad, May 19, 2022 (PPI-OT):Meeting of Senate Standing Committee on Cabinet Secretariat was held in Parliament House on Thursday with Senator Rana Maqbool Ahmad in Chair. The Committee discussed the K-Electric accident, which occurred due to non-observance of safety protocols and caused the death of one person, raised by Senator Engr.Rukhsana Zuberi.
Chairman NEPRA Tauseef H. Farooqi apprised the Committee that all of six persons involved in an incident have been removed from their service. Senator Engr.Rukhsana Zuberi told that K-electric did not pay any compensation to injured person.
Chairman NEPRA informed that the compensation was not paid because the injuries were not of severe nature. Senator Rana Maqbool Ahmad showed distressed over the recent incident of transformer blast in Lahore area (Kahna), which cost the lives of five persons. He directed the Chairman NEPRA to conduct an inquiry of matter and present the report in the next meeting.
Moreover, the Committee also taken up of matter of ownership of different properties/hotels of Pakistan Tourism Development Corporation (PTDC) raised by Senator Mohsin Aziz on 16th November,2021. Managing Director PTDC Aftabur Rehman Rana apprised that the PTDC has shifted its goal from managing hotels to Provincials coordination and promotion and publicity of tourism after the promulgation of 18 Constitutional Amendment.
PTDC is planning to handover all his properties located in different provinces to concerned Provincial government with aim of 90 p.c. revenues of these properties will go to provincial government and 10 p.c. to PTDC, he added. To fulfill this, four out of six properties in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has been handover to KP government and still in negotiations with Baluchistan government, however, Sindh government has been refusing to pay 10 p.c. to PTDC, he further informed.
Chairman Committee Rana Maqbool Ahmad was of view that the surveillance trip should be organized to visit these properties and examine its condition physically.
However, the Committee considered the public petition PP-4078 regarding provision of disabled Quota in BPS-17 posts in Federal Government Department. Additional Secretary Establishment Division informed that “Disabled Persons Ordinance, 1981” and “ICT Rights of person with disabilities Act 2020” provides 2% quota for disabled persons on total number of vacancies in different cadres including BPS-17. Senator Rana Maqbool Ahmad stressed that disabilities of disabled persons should also be kept in mind while assigning different positions to them.
While discussing the questions of Senator Walid Iqbal saying that “Will the officers of National Assembly and Senate can be the posted on the positions of Deputy Commissioners and Commissioners and Chief Secretaries of four provinces”.
Senator Walid Iqbal opined that according to “Civil Service of Pakistan Rules and Service Rules of Provincial Civil Services, 1954”, only the officers of Pakistan Administrative Service (PAS) and Provincial Management Service can be assigned to the positions of Deputy Commissioners and Commissioners. Moreover, only the officers of PAS can be assigned as Chief Secretaries of four provinces.
However, there are few instances in which the officers of Audit Group has been assigned as Chief Secretaries of Sindh, he added. Additionally, the authorities say that the 1954 Service Rules were made in result of agreement but they failed to produce copy of agreement and minutes of meeting, he claimed. Senator Rana Maqbool Iqbal directed the Establishment Division to provide comprehensive details on the matter in the next meeting.
Furthermore, the Committee also considered the public petition PP-3745 with respect to lease of 170 acres of land, acquired by MK Pakistan from Baluchistan Coastal Development Authority in 2013. Additional Director NAB apprised the committee that NAB has started investigation in May 2019 on the application of secretary of cabinet division and in investigation; it was found that the aforementioned 170 acre land belongs to PTDC.
The petitioner informed that, after finding out that the land belongs to PTDC, we started negotiations with PTDC and the latter reconsider it in 2015 with condition of approval of Prime Minister and which was eventually approved by PM. However, Managing Director PTDC refused to accept all the claims made by the petitioner. The Chairman Committee Senator Rana Maqbool Ahmad deferred the matter for further deliberations till next meeting.
The meeting was attended by Senator Saifullah Sarwar Khan Nyazee, Senator Kamil Ali Agha, Senator Sarfaraz Ahmed Bugti, Senator Khalida Ateeb, Senator Engr.Rukhsana Zuberi, Senator Saadia Abbasi, Senator Mohsin Aziz, Senator Walid Iqbal, Additional Secretary Cabinet Division, Additional Secretary Establishment Division, Secretary Federal Public Service Commission, Managing Director Pakistan Tourism Development Corporation (PTDC),Chairman NEPRA, Additional Director NAB, and other senior officers of various ministries as well.
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