Rubina elected chairperson Senate body

Senator Rubina Khalid has been elected as chairperson of Senate Standing Committees on Information Technology and Telecommunication (IT&T). The election was conducted according to Rule 184(1) of the Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in the Senate, 2012. Other members of the committee include Agha Shahzaib Durrani, Mir Nematullah Zehri, Dr Ghous Muhammad Khan Niazi, Dr Ashok Kumar, Muhammad Tahir Bizenjo, Molana Abdul Ghafoor Haideri, Abdul Rehman Malik, Rukhsana Zuberi, Fida Muhammad, Sajjad Hussain Turi, Mian Muhammad Ateeq Shaikh and Sana Jamil.
The elected chairperson stressed upon the need for working through collective wisdom and ensuring maximum presence and participation in the meetings of the committee.
Senator Rubina Khalid has done her LLB from University of Peshawar and was re-elected as senator for 2018-2024. She also remained the member of the last Senate Standing Committee on IT&T till March 2018.
During her last tenure she raised several important issues of the IT&T sector. She had questioned how many scratch cards were sold by the mobile companies and whether or not the deducted amount of tax was deposited in government accounts.
Khalid believed that cellular companies were evading taxes on prepaid cards. According to her, cellular companies deduct about Rs 15 in tax when a subscriber recharges his/her account with a prepaid card of Rs 100. But she was of the view that there was no check whether or not the deducted amount is going into government accounts.
Rubina Khalid had stated that cellular companies were charging their subscribers for one minute while giving them airtime of 45 seconds instead of 60 seconds without informing them. Other members had concurred with this assessment.
This move had compelled the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) to develop a software and start forensic audit of cellular companies. With this meeting concluded on Monday, the Senate has completed the election of 30 committees out of a total of 42 Senate committees.