ISLAMABAD – It surfaced on Tuesday in a meeting of the Standing Committeeon National Food Security and Research which was held at NationalAgriculture Research Centre (NARC) under Chairmanship of Malik ShakirBashir Awan, MNA that 50, 000 rats are roaming free in Parliament.
NARC chairman in the meeting revealed that around 50,000 (fifty thousand)rodents are roaming in the Parliament. He added that the NARC will startplanning an operation to stamp out the uninvited guests.
In 2016, special teams also waged a war on rats in the Parliament House,with one rodent caught alive from the Prime Minister’s chamber.
Media reports suggested that the special teams successfully caught 430 ratsin seven months. The operation was launched in June 2016 by a private firmagainst a contract of Rs650,000 annually. The contract was awarded by theCapital Development Authority (CDA) responsible for the maintenance of thehouse.
During the first month of the operation, the teams caught 236 rats, and inJuly 42, 34 in August, 34 in September, 32 in October, 28 in November andtill date in December 24 rats were caught.
*National Food Safety, Animal and Plant Health Regulatory Authority Bill*
The committee also discussed other matters related to food security in themeeting. Ministry of National Food Security and Research secretary briefedthe committee about the implementation status of the previousrecommendations and also briefed about the Bill “The National Food Safety,Animal and Plant Health Regulatory Authority Bill, 2017”. After detaildeliberations the committee deferred the said Bill till its next meeting.
He also briefed Public Sector Development Program (PSDP) for the financialyear, 2018-19. He informed that there are 18 On-going Projects costingRs.6471.285 million, 10 New-Approved Projects amounting Rs. 546.184 and 26Un-Approved Projects worth Rs. 8846.214. The total budgetary proposalsregarding PSDP for the FY-2018-19 were Rs.4183.441 million. After detaileddiscussion and certain observations of the Committee, the budgetaryproposals were unanimously approved.
The standing committee also directed the ministry to complete all theprojects relating to the PSDP in due time to avoid lapses of funds andunnecessary delay.
The meeting was also attended by Sikandar Hayat Khan Bosan, Minister forNational Food Security and Research and other senior officers of theministry.
Choudhary Iftikhar Nazir, Chaudhary Nazeer Ahmed, Ms. Shahnaz Saleem, Ms.Khalida Mansoor, Pir Shafqat Hussain Jillani, Mr. Faqir Sher MuhammadBilalani and Dr. Fouzia Hameed MNAs attended the meeting.