Sardar Riaz Mahmood Khan Mazari, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) member from Rajanpur, raised the issue of alleged sale of jobs by the Pakistan Railways in his constituency. He alleged that the railways senior officials had received Rs150,000 per person for providing a job and he could provide details of persons who got the jobs and those who received commission and struck deals.
Parliamentary Secretary for Railways Farrukh Habib, however, categorically denied the charges saying merit had not been violated. “All selections were made on merit and no commission was received by anyone,” he said.
Speaker Asad Qaisar sought a report from the Ministry of Railways. Meanwhile, Minister for Housing and Works Tariq Bashir Cheema on the floor of the House reaffirmed the government’s commitment to build five million houses to provide shelter to the low income groups. Respondingto the queries of the members during the question hour, the minister said the Naya Pakistan Housing Authority had been established headed by Prime Minister Imran Khan himself. He said the purpose of authority was to provide homes to the low income groups at affordable rates.
He said efforts were in hand to bring down the interest rate for construction of homes to the single digit, adding that discussions in this regard were in progress with the FBR, State Bank of Pakistan and commercial banks. Cheema said Japan and Italy had almost agreed to provide a handsome grant to the government, which will be used to provide houses to the federal government employees below the scale of fifteen on 50 percent subsidy.
