Senate committee reviews progress of uplift projects

Islamabad: The Senate Functional Committee on Problems of Less Developed Areas asked the Federal and provincial authorities to re-double their efforts for bringing the under-developed areas at par with the developed ones.

The committee, met in the Parliament House here with Senator Wali Mohammad Badini in the chair, made this recommendation and reviewed the progress made on various development projects being undertaken in different under-developed areas. The meeting was informed that the government had decided to import 2.5 million tones of wheat and it was hoped that some of the wheat would come through Gwadar.

However, the committee said the Trading Corporation of Pakistan's recent tendering of wheat import minus Gwadar port not only came as a shock for the people, but it also sent wrong signal to the shipping community.

The members of the committee were of the view that at least one-third of wheat imported should have been routed through Gwadar. There was a general consensus that road and railways network must be made fully operational to make the port economically viable.

The representatives of the Ministry of Ports and Shipping informed the committee that the government was keen to use full potential of Gwadar port, as it would be the future of Pakistan. In reply to a question, the committee was informed that there was neither any grid station nor dredging facilities at Gwadar port.

It was also informed that the Federal government had allocated funds for developments schemes for the parliamentarians and each of them could now submit development schemes worth Rs 10 million.

The Chairman of the committee, highlighting the cumbersome procedure being adopted in the release of funds for the development schemes for the MPs,' suggested that the procedure be simplified and the funds be directly sent to the prosecuting agencies, instead of the district co-ordination officers (DCOs).

The representatives of the Gwadar port said that things at the port had changed as some plants had already been installed and the port was ready to receive the wheat. It was told that the Economic Co-ordination Committee (ECC) of the Cabinet had decided that the port would get a fair share in the import of wheat.

Regarding the establishment of Planning and Monitoring Cell in the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development, the committee was told that the cell had been established in the ministry, aimed at planning, monitoring and evaluating the development projects and to maintain the database of programmes/projects.

The committee was also given a detailed briefing about Khushal Pakistan Programme -pilot project for model village development in Pakistan and human and physical development projects.

The meeting was attended by Senators Muhammad Amjad Abbas, Nawab Muhammad Ayaz Khan Jogezai and Hafiz Rashid Ahmad, besides the representatives of the Planning and Development Division; Ministry of Ports and Shipping, Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development, National Highway Authority (NHA), Gwadar Port Authority and various ministries of the provincial governments of Balochistan and Sindh were also present.