Senator Muzaffar Shah, who is the chairman of the Senate's Standing Committee on Food Security and Research, said the reasons for the wheat crisis should be determined through an investigation by the committee. First the wheat was exported and now the people were facing its shortage.

He said farmers were complaining that prices of inputs like seeds, fertilizers and electricity tariff had gone up. The minimum support price for farmers should be determined before the cultivation season of the crops like sugarcane, wheat and cotton, he stressed.

Senator Usman Kakar claimed that inflation had risen to 13 to 15 percent as prices of some items had increased many folds. Different mafias were working against the interests of the people.

Leader of the House Shibli Faraz said Minister for Food Security Khusro Bakhtiar would brief the House on Tuesday about the situation of wheat supply.

The House referred the matter raised by Senator Prof Dr Mehr Taj Roghani about the practice of re-employment of retired employees of Pakistan International Airlines on contract basis, to the committee.

Minister for Aviation Ghulam Sarwar said the government had no policy of re-employment in the PIA. However, the previous government and the Supreme Court decided to re-employ experienced pilots.

The House also referred to the relevant committee, the matter raised by Senator Kalsoom Perveen about enhancing the limit of age relaxation for recruitment in the Federal Government departments for further two years.

The House passed the resolution of Senator Bahramand Khan Tangi asking the government to take necessary steps to implement its ease of doing business programme in letter and spirit and facilitate the business community to encourage the local and foreign investors to make investment in the country.

The House also passed a resolution recommending that the government should take immediate steps to provide official accommodations to all the employees working in the government and semi-government departments.

Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Azam Khan Swati while responding to the motions moved by the senators, said the economy had stabilized due to the measures taken by the government.

The government inherited a weak economy and a very high current account deficit but now due to its different initiatives, the international financial institutions had expressed their confidence in the Pakistani economy, he added.

He said it was a fact that in the past $ 25 billion was spent on keeping the rupee at a lower value against the dollar but it did not have any positive impact on economic growth, employment generation and exports.

Swati said exports had increased by 4.5 percent, imports had came down by 21 percent and the trade deficit had gone down by 17 percent.

He said in the year 2020, the economy would move towards a better condition. There was a shortfall of hundreds of billions of rupees in taxes and revenue during the previous government, he said adding now the budget deficit was under control.

© Pakistan Press International, source Asianet-Pakistan