Roosevelt Hotel: government has no sell-off plan, NA body told

A parliamentary penal has been informed that the ruling government of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) has no plan to sell-off Roosevelt Hotel owned by Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) in New York. National Assembly Standing Committee on Parliamentary Affairs met here with MNA Dr Shezra Mansab Ali Khan Kharal in the chair on Monday. The committee discussed the issue of privatisation of Roosevelt Hotel and other proposed agendas.
The PIA acting chairman briefing the committee about profit made by Roosevelt Hotel and said that revenue of the hotel for year 2016 was $96.450 million and profit figure stood at $1.540 million. He further revealed that the Aviation Division has no plan to sell the hotel, adding that some experts have given proposals to lease out the hotel for a period of 30 to 40 years to earn more profit.
The committee expressed its annoyance over the proposal and strongly recommended that the hotel should not be given out on lease at any cost. The committee also decided to invite the PIA chief executive officer to brief the committee about suspension / cancellation of flights/ routes to New York. The secretary Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs also briefed the committee about status of encashment of PIA tickets to the parliamentarians. After having a discussion, the committee directed that Rs 300,000 (without any deduction) should be given to the parliamentarians instead of vouchers and also recommended that number of tickets should be increased from 20 to 30.
The committee considered 'The Elections (Amendment) Act, 2017' moved by MNA Naeema Kishwer Khan. After having detailed deliberations on the bill, the committee directed the ministry to provide more details in the next meeting in this regard. The secretary further briefed the committee about a comprehensive report and the implementation status of previous recommendations of the committee.
He said that the ministry complied with the directions of the committee and sent letters to concerned departments for implementation on these directions. The joint secretary Ministry of Housing and Works briefed the committee about the budget and maintenance of government rest houses. He stated that at present the Ministry of Housing and Works / Pak PWD are not maintaining the rest houses. He also provided details of lodges, hostels and family suites working under the Ministry of Housing and Works.
The committee directed the Ministry of Housing and Works to provide details of officers residing in lodges, hostels and family suites in the federal capital in the next meeting. The meeting was attended by senior officers of the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs, Ministry of Law & Justice, Ministry of Housing and Works, Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) and Pakistan International Airlines (PIA).