The opposition lawmakers in the Senate on Friday staged a walkout in protest against the government's exclusion of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto's name from the official Women's Day advertisements.
The issue was raised by Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Senator Sherry Rehman who took to the floor of the House and said, "The world acknowledges the services of Benazir Bhutto. The government should apologise for not including her name in the official advertisements released to mark International Women's Day."
"The government should make alterations to the advertisement by this evening," she added as members of the government also thumped desks in support of her statement.
Leader of the House in Senate Shibli Faraz seconded Rehman and said, "Pakistani nation values the services of Benazir Bhutto." "The advertisement should have mentioned Benazir Bhutto's name. We will look into how her name was not included," he added.
Benazir Bhutto was the first woman to head a democratic government in a Muslim majority nation. Earlier, the House unanimously passed a resolution commending the role of Pakistani women in development of the country who are playing their due role in every sphere of society including the military.
The resolution moved by Nuzhat Sadiq of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) on the occasion of International Women's Day, demanded that concretes steps should be taken for women empowerment.
In his remarks on the occasion, Chairman Senate Sadiq Sanjrani appreciated the contributions of Pakistani women in different fields including politics and sports. He said such an environment should be created that enables women to move forward without any impediment.
Minister for Petroleum Ghulam Sarwar Khan told the House during question hour that efforts were afoot to remove system constraints in order to address the issue of low gas pressure. He said that Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited had started injection of RLNG which had mitigated demand-supply gap of natural gas to a great extent. He said the gas distribution company had also arranged a number of LNG cargos which would further improve the situation. He said that efforts were also being made to check gas theft.
The Petroleum Minister said that Rs 48 billion had been released for establishment of 26 LPG air mix plants in Balochistan province to meet the gas demand there.
Minister for Religious Affairs Noor-ul-Haq Qadri told the House that a proposal had been prepared to promote dialogue between followers of different religions in order to achieve the goal of interfaith harmony. He said that under that proposal Pakistani religious scholars would visit churches and Gurdwaras whilst the followers of other religions would visit mosques to promote interaction amongst them and remove misunderstandings.
He said Paigham-e-Pakistan document carrying signatures of 900 scholars belonging to all schools of thought had also been launched in which suicide attacks had been declared 'Haraam.'
He said the document also laid great emphasis on interfaith and intersect harmony, adding the government was following the model of Medina State and would formulate laws to run the affairs of the country as per the Islamic injunctions.
Minister for Power Omer Ayub said that nuclear energy would remain an important component of energy mix. He said, "We are rapidly building up the nuclear energy and have also prepared a plan to make more investments in this source."