ISLAMABAD: The Upper House of Parliament on Wednesday unanimously passed the Pakistan Health Research Council Bill, 2015.
State Minister for National Health Services, Regulations and Coordination Saira Afzal Tarrar piloted the bill to provide for reconstitution and reorganisation of Pakistan Health Research Council (The Pakistan Health Research Council Bill, 2015) in the Upper House.
The Statements of Objects and Reasons of the bill said the Pakistan Medical Research Council (PMRC) was an autonomous organisation established under a resolution. Supreme Court directed that bodies set up through resolutions were not corporate bodies, but were government departments and their employees were civil servants. In order to give legal status of corporate bodies, Establishment Division issued a procedure for implementation by the relevant ministries and divisions.
In order to carry out its mandate and academic-based research pursuits effectively, the Ministry of Health agreed that PMRC should continue as an autonomous organisation. However, it may be re-named as the Pakistan Health Research Council (PHRC). The Management Services Wing of the Establishment Division has also agreed to the re-constitution of PMRC as PHRC with a legal status of body corporate through an Act of parliament. Senate was also informed that China would construct additional multipurpose berths at Gwadar Port to make the deep-sea port fully operational. Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Sheikh Aftab Ahmed told the House that currently three berths were operational at the port. He said under China-Pakistan Economic Corridor project, the port’s terminal would also be upgraded and expanded.
Meanwhile, Saira Afzal Tarar told the House that a feasibility study was being carried out to establish a cancer hospital in the federal capital. She said the deserving people were being provided free healthcare, which also covers the treatment of cancer under the recently launched Prime Minister’s National Health Programme.
Meanwhile, Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party’s (PMAP) Senator Muhammad Usman Khan Kakar strongly reacted over Interior Minister Nisar Ali Khan’s statement of Tuesday.
He informed the Upper House that he had requested Senate chairman several times to allocate independent opposition in Senate, but it has not been done. He claimed that Nisar made a wrong statement in Senate and initiated operation Zarb-e-Azb against “innocent” Pashtuns. Following Kakar, PPP’s Senator Saeed Ghani also wanted to say something against the interior minister over his statement, but he was not allowed by Senate Deputy Chairman Abdul Ghafoor Haidri. Reacting over the remarks against Nisar, leader of House, Raja Zafarul Haq said a senator should ask any question over any person when he/she is present in the House so that he could respond properly.
