ISLAMABAD: SAFRON ministry through ministries of finance, defense
and foreign affairs would take up the issue with NATO of provision of
necessary funding for maintenance of all roads being used for
international trade/NATO use.
This was decided in the meeting
of National Assembly Standing Committee on States and Frontier Regions
(SAFRON) which met here in the Parliament House on Saturday under the
Chairmanship of Engineer Tariq Muhammad Khattak.
Giving
briefing to the committee FATA Secretary Law and Order Tariq Hayat said
that providing routes to the seas to the land-locked countries is an
obligation under international law but no tax is being collected under
the head of Pak-Afghan transit trade.
He said that about 700
hundreds heavy vehicles a day used the roads in Peshawar, and Turkham
but no heeds is paid to the condition of the roads used for the transit
trade.
The committee was informed that conditions of roads in
Balochistan especially Quetta-Chamman-Spinboldak road was totally
ignored despite traffic of heavy vehicles on it.
The committee
was told that only port charges and transportation are sources of
income from transit trade but no tax is charged as far as the trade is
concerned.
It was recommended that condition of Turkham
crossing point and other such points should be improved. The standing
committee asked the SAFRON ministry to issue strong recommendations to
National Highway Authority for construction of roads like
Peshawar-Turkham road. It also asked for taking up issue of funding for
roads with NATO.
With regard to maintenance allowance to the
former rulers of states in Balochistan, the committee decided to form a
sub-committee under convenership of MNA Pervaiz Khan Advocate to
resolve problems in grant of maintenance allowances and other matters
relating to Ex-rulers of the Kalat, Mekran, Lasbela and Kharan states
of Balochistan province that were acceded to Pakistan. MNA Jawad
Hussain and MNA Lt. Gen (Retd) Abdul qadir Baloch would be members of
the sub-committee. The committee would make recommendations of
increasing their perks and privileges after discussion.
With
regard to matters relating to Levy Force in Balochistan, the committee
expressed concern that 100 percent risk allowance admissible to
Balochistan levies force and police has not yet been provided. It
observed that no weapons and equipments were provided to the province
and Balochistan still lacking regulation and service rules for federal
levies in the province.
The committee pointed out that creation
of 3000 posts of federal levies in the province and filing up of 100
posts created village defence in Dera Bugti was also not resolved.
It was instructed that the committees on procurement and death compensation should finalise the cases.
Regarding
pension being faced by the federal levy in Kurram Agency, the committee
advised ministry of SAFRON, AGPR,Sub Office in Peshawar, Agency
Accounts Office in Kurram and Parachinar to resolve the issue without
further delay.
The Standing Committee on States and Frontier
Regions demanded details of a refugee project, RAHA, as no project was
carried out in major hosting areas like Swabi. Chairman of the
committee found the reply unsatisfactory when he was told that the
donors or UNHCR determine the area where a project of Refugee Affected
and Hosting Areas (RAHA) is to be carried out, saying they decide on
the basis of the data that authorities in Pakistan provided to them.
“We
don’t know utilities of the project that were completed last year. We
were absolutely unaware that such projects are planned or going on,”
said Pervaiz Khan, MNA from Swabi. Similarly Nowshera, which has been
hosting a large number of refugees for long, was also ignored. Online
