[RerRoktoido]

ISLAMABAD – The National Assembly Friday unanimously adopted a motion to form a house committee to scrutinise the actual amounts of domestic and foreign loans taken by the successive governments from 1985 to date.The motion moved by PML-N’s Ahsan Iqbal said this committee would submit report in two months regarding the need of the loans and their use. The members then authorised the house speaker to form the committee within a week.The decision on forming this probe body was spontaneous and came when PPP Chief Whip Syed Khursheed Shah suggested forming a commission on the issue to counter Ahsan, who questioned use of huge sums taken as loans by the present government. The PML-N leader in his tirade against the government said it was responsible for deteriorating economic condition of the country. “Economic problem has become a threat for the national sovereignty now,” he said on a point of order.The public debt, which is now touching the figure of Rs12 trillion, was much low in the PML-N era. “No motorway, no industry and no special development work is visible in the country, then where these funds have been used,” he questioned. He asked for a debate to know the reasons behind the economic crisis “as now even investors are not spending money in the country”.Khursheed Shah responded: “Why not, we should form a commission to check utilisation of loans… It should be on the assembly record that what happened in the previous eras,” he added. He also stressed for proper timeframe for submission of report to the house. Deputy Speaker Faisal Karim Kundi asked the members from opposition benches for their consent to form a committee on the issue. Ahsan Iqbal firmly responded that they were ready for it.Sharing the achievements of incumbent government, Khursheed said the country’s food basket was full even for the next year. Dollar rate has dropped down from 95 to 91 rupees and it could further decline in the upcoming months, he said, adding that prices of fuel were reduced but no one appreciated it.Ahsan said he was unable to understand as to what progress in the country was being narrated by member of treasury benches. “Ministers Colony’s Pakistan was discussed by the senior member but I was talking about those parts of country where people are suffering long loadshedding hours,” he maintained. Khursheed rushed to remark that the Ministers Colony also had loadshedding. “We are not living in Ashiyana,” he said, referring to the housing scheme launched by the PML-N government in the Punjab.The house also passed two bills: ‘Special Economic Zones Bill,2012’ – to provide for setting up and operation of special economic zones in Pakistan – and ‘The Medical and Dental Council (Amendment) Bill‚ 2012’ – to help take the private sector medical colleges and hospitals into the mainstream by amending the Medical and Dental Council Ordinance‚ 1962. Both the bills have already been passed from the upper house of the parliament. The house session after two weeks’ sitting was prorogued.Earlier, raising a point of order in the middle of the Question Hour session, a senior PML-Q member said that there was no constitutional provision to appoint anyone as deputy prime minister or senior minister in the country. Criticising the new appointment of his own party member (Perviaz Elahi) as deputy PM, Riaz Husain Pirzada questioned as to how a deputy PM can be notified after the 18th amendment.He further said that advisers were even responding to the questions in the house which was also an open violation of the rules. He also said that advisers should not be given access to the government files as they have not taken oath. “We are here after taking oath. The government can make advisers but they cannot respond to questions in the house.”Pirzada also questioned “allowing the strangers to sit in parliamentary galleries”. “Even a member cannot raise slogans but here people sitting in lobby raise slogans,” he remarked and asked the chair for ruling on all these matters.PPP minister Naveed Qamar responded by saying that there was no explicit bar in the constitution on the appointment of deputy prime minister or senior ministers. Naveed said government can also appoint at least five advisers and they can also participate in parliamentary debates. However, he said that these advisers were not allowed to cast votes. ANP legislator Bushra Gohar, on point of order, raised serious concern over attack on ANP leadership and killing of ANP members. “ANP is under threat; why proper security is not being provided?”