Islamabad, Dec. 11 (TNS): The National Assembly resumed its session at the parliament house in Islamabad on Tuesday with Deputy Speaker Qasim Khan Suri in the chair.
The house is transacting private members’ business.
The National Assembly was informed that no gas load shedding is being carried out in any part of the country.
Responding to a calling attention notice moved by Agha Hassan Baloch, Minister for Petroleum Ghulam Sarwar Khan admitted there is issue of low gas pressure in different cities. He said efforts are afoot to address the problem. He said Sui Southern Gas Pipelines Limited is executing two projects of replacing the old pipelines with new ones at a cost of 2.28 billion rupees. He said the laying of new pipelines and installations of new compressors will help address the issue of low gas pressure.
The Petroleum Minister said the gas distribution companies have also been directed to check their losses and gas theft.
Earlier the members highlighted the issue of low gas pressure in Balochistan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and the federal capital.
Journalists staged a walk out from the press gallery over the issue of nonpayment of salaries by the media outlets.
Talking to them, Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry said we stand by the journalists’ community. He said 460 million rupees have been released by the Federal and Punjab governments to the media outlets to protect the jobs of media workers. He said we are also framing a new advertising policy.
Taking the floor, Minister for Information Fawad Chaudhry expressed the concerns over the downsizing in the media outlets. He assured that the government stands by the media workers and protect their rights. He said the advertising related liabilities on the government are to the tune of 1.3 billion rupees. He said we are in the process of releasing the amount in phases in order to provide relief to the journalists.
