Islamabad (December 12, 2018): The National Assembly resumed its session at the parliament house in Islamabad on Wednesday with Speaker Asad Qaiser in the chair.
Earlier yesterday, the session resumed at the parliament house with Deputy Speaker Qasim Khan Suri in the chair.
The house was 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.
Responding to the points raised by Ajmal Khan on the problems faced by farmers, Information Minister Fawad Chaudhary said the present government is giving priority to the uplift of the agriculture sector. He said the sector is also being made part of multi-billion dollars China Pakistan Economic Corridor project.
On the protest of teachers of basic education community schools at D. Chowk in Islamabad, Minister of Education Shafqat Mahmood assured their salaries will soon be paid after approval of over three billion rupees by the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council [ECNEC] for this purpose.
He said all the institutes of non-formal education will be brought under one umbrella in order to address their budget related matters.
Minister of State for Interior told the House a plan will be unveiled in March next year to make National Counter Terrorism Authority [NACTA] more meaningful and vibrant. He said national security is the focus of the government.
Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Ali Muhammad Khan said all the stakeholders including the political parties should sit together to formulate a charter of economy. He said this is the way forward to put the country on the path sustainable development.
A number of bills were also laid before the House.
These are: The Constitution (Amendment) bill, 2018 (Articles 25 B, 51, 63 B, 92 and 106), Pakistan Psychological Council Bill, 2018, The Election (Amendment) Bill, 2018, The Legal Practitioners and Bar Councils (Amendment) Bill, 2018 and The Constitution (Amendment) Bill, (Article 106).
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