News
Friday, September 24, 2010
Sports Ministry expresses helplessness to take action against PCBISLAMABAD: The Ministry of Sports in a Senate session on Thursday expressed its helplessness to take action against any official of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) including its Chairman Ijaz Butt for their incompetence to run affairs of the board.
PCB and its chairman came under sever criticism from the Upper House for their incompetence to put the board on the right path particularly after the recent accusations of match fixing against some cricketers and the poor performance of the cricket team in England.
“The Ministry of Sports cannot take any action against the PCB officials, including its chairman, as it (PCB) is an autonomous body and the ministry would not be able to do anything in this regard,” Federal Minister for Culture Pir Aftab Jilani said while replying to a question on behalf of the Ministry of Sports.
The senators were angry over the decision to not take any action against Butt, despite his poor performance as the head of the body.
Awami National Party (ANP) Senator Zahid Khan said that he wanted to know whose backing Butt had, as he could not be removed. “If the ministry is helpless, then show us the authority, which could have the power to take any action against him”, he asked.
Senator Ismail Buledi asked how to get rid of the PCB chairman and also expressed serious concern over the poor performance of the cricket team in the recent tour of England. He said that the PCB chairman was still on the post despite the privilege committee’s recommendation to remove him.
Jilani himself admitted that there was a dire need of strict action against the players who had performed poorly.
Some of the lawmakers had also been critical about the discriminatory attitude of the PCB against some cricketers. Senator Abbas Khan asked why Younus Khan was not in the team, adding that he should be included in the team as soon as possible.
The House also took serious note of the Rs 3.4 million spent by the minister for investment since 2008 on foreign trips. The parliamentarians questioned that the foreign trips had not yielded any investment.
The senators also criticised the Ministry of Housing and Works for not appointing any senior officials from the smaller provinces.
To a question, Minister for Housing Rehmatullah Kakar told the House that the Pakistan Housing Foundation had acquired 3,000 kanals of land in Bharakahu, Islamabad to develop 500 square yard plots for government employees.
Separately, as many as 1,781 persons had died and 2,966 had been injured during the recent floods across the country.
The minister in charge of the Prime Minister’s Secretariat informed the Upper House of the Parliament during the question hour that 110 persons had died in Punjab, 213 in Sindh, 1,068 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), 48 in Balochistan, 88 in FATA, 71 in Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) and 183 in Gilgit Baltistan.
Similarly, 17,11,956 acres of cropped land were affected by the floods in Punjab, 45,660 houses were damaged completely, while 464,154 were partially damaged. 3,641 schools and education facilities were destroyed as well. In Sindh, 2,578,129 acres of cropped land had been affected. 7,507 villages had been affected and 10,98,720 houses had been damaged.
In KP, the most affected province of the country, 912,999 persons had been displaced, while a population of 660,000 were left stranded with nowhere to go. 507,423 acres of cropped land had been affected in the province. 885 education facilities, 169 health facilities and 178 government building were damaged during the floods.
191,215 houses, 500 shops, 282 roads, 278 bridges, 23 culverts had also been damaged in the province.
In FATA, 20,264 hectares of cultivated land had been damaged, while 4361 houses had been destroyed.
In Balochistan 2,604 villages had been affected, 75,261 houses had been damaged, 100,324 families were affected, 910,000 acres of cropped land was destroyed and 305 kilometres of roads had been affected.
In AJK 7,106 houses had been damaged and 1,008 shops were destroyed. In Gilgit-Baltistan 347 villages were affected, 2,830 houses had been damaged, 25,470 persons had become IDPs, 71,885 kanals of land, 501 channels, 182 bridges, 100,112 trees and 4,669 cattle had been affected.
He said that 24,630 persons had been rescued in Balochistan, 50,953 in KP, 381,496 in Punjab, 923,909 in Sindh, 165 in AJK and 3,243 in Gilgit-Baltistan.
In order to move into the early recovery phase, the National Disaster Management Authority had been finalising an early recovery plan with the help of UNDP in collaboration with the relevant clusters, the minister said.
He said the damage and needs assessment by the World Bank/Asian Development Bank (ADB) will be completed by September, upon the outcome of which, sector wise reconstruction and rehabilitation planning would be finalised through an elaborate consultative process.
The minister said policy planning, resource mobilisation, monitoring and evaluation had been the responsibility of the federal government, whereas the implementation would fall in the domain of the provincial governments.
Also on Thursday, Minister for Religious Affairs Syed Hamid Saeed Kazmi informed the Upper House of parliament that a summary had been sent to Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani for taking immediate action against Saudi Arabia DG Haj Directorate Rao Shakeel Ahmad.
In response to various questions raised by the senators during the questions hour, he said investigation for misappropriation against Ahmad had been initiated in June 2001, however no allegations had been proved yet. staff report/app
Courtesy www.dailytimes.com.pk