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Met office now capable of predicting rain bearing system 3-6 days ahead for whole of country at district level
ISLAMABAD – Minister for Aviation Division Ghulam Sarwar on Monday informed the National Assembly that all reservations of International Civil Aviation Organization [ICAO] had been addressed which would help lifting ban on PIA flights by the European Union.
“A European Union team will visit Pakistan till November for conducting audit and most probably the ban will be lifted by the end of this year,” said Minister for Aviation Division Ghulam Sarwar, responding to a query raised by the opposition party’s MNA, during the Question-House.
The minister said that PIA had resumed its flights to Saudia Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Oman, Qatar, Bahrain, Afghanistan, United Kingdom (Scheduled Charter operation), France (Scheduled Charter Operation), Canada , Malaysia and Syria.
To another question, the minister said that all the appointments made in PIA since 2008 have been made in accordance with PIA recruitment rules and regulations.
The Minister for Aviation, in a written reply, said that the meteorological office is now capable of predicting rain bearing system 3-6 days ahead for whole of the country at district level.
To a question raised by the opposition MNA, Minister In-Charge of the Poverty Alleviation and Social Safety Division said that 21.9 percent of the population living below poverty line.
According to latest poverty headcount based on 2018-19 household Integrated Economic Survey (HIES) data, the PTI’s government officially uses the Cost of Basic Need (CBN) method to estimate numbers of the poor living below the poverty line in Pakistan.
Comparing with 2015-16, the Cost Basic Need (CBN) based headcount declined by 2.4 percent from 24.3 percent in 2015-16 to 21.9 percent 2018-19.
To another question, Minister In-charge of the Cabinet Division in a written reply said that around 45,000 low cost housing units are under construction.
It includes four recently inaugurated projects comprising a number of 11,000 housing units including LDA City Lahore, Jalozai Housing Scheme Nowshera, Alipur Farash Islamabad and WWF Islamabad.
Minister further informed that the private sector is also keen on low cost housing and has submitted 230 proposals to the Naya Pakistan Housing and Development Authority (NAPHDA).
The house could hardly run till Question Hour [first one-hour of the proceedings] , as once again the opposition disrupted the proceedings by taking advantage of lack of proceedings.
The house, in the fourth parliamentary year of PTI’s government, witnessed double hat-trick for not managing proper quorum to run the proceedings of the house. Ahsan Mazari from opposition benches pointed out lack of quorum in the house when not more than fifty MNAs were present in the house.