1 (32nd Session) NATIONAL ASSEMBLY SECRETARIAT ———— “QUESTIONS FOR ORAL ANSWERS AND THEIR REPLIES” to be asked at a sitting of the National Assembly to be held on Wednesday, the 11th May, 2016 16. *Ms. Naeema Kishwar Khan: (Deferred during 30th Session) Will the Minister for National Health Services, Regulations and Coordination be pleased to state: (a) the names of un-registered Dental and Medical Colleges in the country at present; (b) whether it is a fact that the said Colleges have granted admission to male and female students; if so, the details thereof; (c) the action taken by the Government against the said un-registered Colleges; and (d) the steps being taken by the Government in respect of future of the said students? Reply not received. 91. *Ms. Belum Hasnain: (Deferred during 30th Session) Will the Minister for National Food Security and Research be pleased to state: (a) whether it is a fact that the prices of cotton seed are different in Punjab and Sindh; if so, the reasons thereof; and 2 (b) the total quantity of cotton seed produced by the said provinces during the last three years alongwith the province-wise details thereof? Minister for National Food Security and Research (Mr. Sikandar Hayat Khan Bosan): (a) Government does not regulate prices of seed. In general, there is no difference in prices of cotton seed in Punjab and Sindh provinces. (b) —————————————————————————————— Year Punjab Sindh Total (Quantity MT) (Quantity MT) Pakistan (Quantity MT) —————————————————————————————— 2013-14 19145 1178 20715 2014-15 30720 3534 34521 2015-16 11114 2715 13828* —————————————————————————————— 109. *Ms. Munaza Hassan: (Deferred during 30th Session) Will the Minister for Ports and Shipping be pleased to state: (a) the total number of schemes launched by the Ministry for the welfare of Merchant Navy Seamen during the last three years alongwith the details thereof; and (b) the benefits derived from the said schemes so far? Minister for Ports and Shipping (Mr. Kamran Michael): (a) Within the last three years, no schemes for the welfare of merchant seamen have been launched by the Ministry. However, PNSC provides benefits to its seafarers as per National Maritime Board under national Laws effective (MLO Regulations) from 27-02-2001 as per Annexure-I. (b) Nil (Annexure has been placed in the National Assembly Library) ——————————————————————————————————————————— * The seed testing figure for 2015-16 are in progress. 3 157. *Ms. Suraiya Jatoi: (Deferred during 30th Session) Will the Minister for National Health Services, Regulations and Coordination be pleased to state the steps taken by the Government to improve health facilities in Islamabad? Transferred to Capital Administration and Development Division for answer on next rota day. 31. *Dr. Fozia Hameed: Will the Minister for Housing and Works be pleased to state: (a) whether it is a fact that no housing programme has been started by the present Government so far; (b) whether it is also a fact that the manifesto/plan for housing sector of the Government is not being implemented; (c) whether it is further a fact that cheap accommodation units are not being provided to shelter less citizens in the country; (d) if the answers to part (a),(b) and (c) above are in the affirmative, the reasons thereof; and (e) the steps taken by the Government in this regard? Minister for Housing and Works (Mr. Akram Khan Durrani): (a) (A) National Housing Authority (a) No, the present Government under its manifesto / plan has initiated various housing schemes. Government has announced Prime Minister’s (Apna Ghar) Low Income Housing Programme, which includes construction of 1000 Clusters of 500 houses each for low-income families all over the country and to ensure cost-effective access to credit for housing, the government will be picking up a portion of the financing cost on behalf of the borrower over and above 8%. Provinces have 4 started allocating State Land for development of housing scheme under the said Programme. Ministry has completed initial planning work and finalized housing designs. Project execution work will started as soon as other codal formalities including release of funds is completed. (b) As above at serial No. a (c) Does not pertain to NHA. Reply may be sought from relevant departments. (d) No the present Government has initiated a number of housing schemes. Details are at material for supplementary. (e) As above at serial No. a (B) FGEHF FGEHF is also working suitably to provide developed plots to house the federal government employees. (C) PHA-Foundation No, it is not a fact that no housing programme has been started by the present Government so far. In fact during present Government regime, PHAF has launched following projects to provide apartments to low income persons including Federal Government Employees: —————————————————————————————— S.No. Project —————————————————————————————— 1. 3200 D&E-type apptts. at Sector I-12/1, Islamabad 2. 1584 (B&E-type) apptts. at Sector I-16/3, Islamabad 3. 8 executive apartments at plot near UET, Lahore 4. Construction of 116 B & D Type apartments at Section G-10/2, Islamabad —————————————————————————————— 5 (b) No, it is not a fact that the manifesto/plan for housing sector of the Government is not being implemented. Instead, PHA Foundation has successfully launched above mentioned new projects and has further planned new housing projects which shall be launched soon. (c) No, it is not a fact that cheap accommodation units are not being provided to shelter less citizens in the country, instead PHAF has launched following project in 2015 to provide low-cost apartments to low-income general public and Federal Government Employees of BPS (1 to 16) on ownership basis: i. 3200 D&E - type apptts. at Sector I-12/1, Islamabad (d) Answers to parts (a), (b) and (c) above are not in affirmative. (e) During present Government regime, PHAF has launched 04 housing projects as mentioned above in part (a) while planning of further 05 projects is complete to provide apartments to both Federal Government Employees and General Public. 32. *Dr. Fozia Hameed: Will the Minister for National Health Services, Regulations and Coordination be pleased to state the steps being taken by the Government to control prices of veterinary drugs, vaccines and animal feed additives to improve production of said products in the country and avoid dependence on the imports thereof? Minister for National Health Services, Regulations and Coordination: (a) Prices of veterinary drugs, vaccines and animal feed additives are not regulated by the Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan and the Federal Government. (b) The following steps were taken by the Government to improve production of veterinary drugs in the country. (i) The DRAP Act, 2012, which is new legislation, encourages local production of medicines including veterinary medicines and vaccines. (ii) The local manufacturing of veterinary drugs is generally encouraged by facilitating the processing of drug registration application. In 6 particular drug registration application for new manufacturing licenses/ new sections are processed on priority. (iii) All veterinary producer and sellers are encouraged to observe good manufacturing and storage practices for maintaining quality of veterinary drugs. (iv) As a result of encouragement for local manufacturing of veterinary drugs, almost 70% of registered veterinary drugs are manufactured locally. 33. *Ms. Munaza Hassan: Will the Minister for National Food Security and Research be pleased to state: (a) whether it is a fact that the Government has announced to provide Solar Tube Wells to the farmers during the budget 2015-16; (b) if the answer to part (a) above is in the affirmative, whether it is also a fact that Government has failed to implement such announcement in letter and spirit; if so, the reasons thereof; and (c) the steps being taken by the Government in this regard? Minister for National Food Security and Research (Mr. Sikandar Hayat Khan Bosan): (a) Yes. (b) The Government has not failed to implement the announced scheme but working on mechanism for its smooth implementation. (c) The steps taken by the Government are as follows:— Focal person of the scheme has been notified. The mechanism i.e. the SOPs /TORs and technical specification etc. have been finalized in consultation with Stakeholders, related federal organizations and consortium of Public sector Organizations. 7 The project titled “Establishment of PMU and Capacity Building under Prime Minister’s Mark-up Free Financing for Solar Tube wells Scheme in the Country” has been approved by DDWP. The project will assist in launching the scheme. Accordingly, Planning, Development and Reforms Division has also been approached for provision of funds for the project for early implementation of the Prime Minister’s Solar Tube Well Scheme. 34. *Ms. Munaza Hassan: Will the Minister for National Health Services, Regulations and Coordination be pleased to state: (a) the purpose of establishment of the Tobacco Control Cell; (b) the total number of employees working in the said Cell at present; and (c) the steps taken by the said Cell in terms of tobacco control activities in the country? Minister for National Health Services, Regulations and Coordination: (a) The Government of Pakistan signed the Framework Convention of Tobacco Control (FCTC) in May, 2004 and ratified it in the same year. Under Article 5.2 of the FCTC, the Parties to the said treaty are mandated to put in place proper and effective national coordination mechanism for multi-sectoral coordination of tobacco control efforts. In order to fulfill obligations under this Article of FCTC, Tobacco Control Cell was established in Ministry of Health (Defunct) on 1st July, 2007. Currently, the Cell has been placed under Ministry of National Health Services, Regulations and Coordination. The purpose of establishment of Tobacco Control Cell is to reduce prevalence of tobacco use in Pakistan by taking administrative, legislative and coordination measures for demand and supply reduction of tobacco products and implementation of FCTC Articles.