He further informed the House that there is no shortage of food items in the country as we had record production of 24.032 million tonnes of wheat during last year and country had highest ever wheat stocks of over 10 million tons. He further said that it is expected that at the end of food year (May-April) country will have over 3 million tons surplus wheat stocks. He added that the Government has also surplus of rice, maize and sufficient supply of pulse.
To a supplementary question, the Minister said that prices of mash pulses are very high due to its domestic production of 1.4 million tons against its consumption of 4 million tons.
To another question, he added that sugar production in the coming year would be 3.2 million tons against the required domestic demand of 4 million tons. Gondal added that Palm oil production on commercial scale has not yet started from the oil palms plantation in the country. To a question, he said that technical assistance is being provided to farmers in collaboration with Malaysia for palm oil cultivation in coastal areas of Sindh and Balochistan.
The Minister informed the House that Passco has established 86 purchase centres. Out of them 73 are in Punjab, five in Sindh and eight in Balochistan. Gondal added that Edible Oil Production Board has been constituted which has formulated a comprehensive strategy for enhancing production of palm oil, sunflower and canola production that would help reduce edible oil import on which the government is currently spending two billion dollars annually.
Minister for Health Makhdoom Shahabuddin informed the House that the polio cases in the country have decreased from 170 in 2008 to 90 in 2009. Donya Aziz of PML-Q criticised the government, saying that there were only 30 polio cases when her party left the government.
To a supplementary question, the health Minister informed the House that the total allocation in the PSDP for health sector is Rs 14.945 billion in 2007-08 and 13.990 billion in 2008-09. He added that there would be no cut in PSDP of health sector rather it would increase.
Minister for Health Makhdoom Shahabuddin informed the House during question hour that Rs 94 million have been earmarked in the current budget for this purpose and the government has set up twenty AIDS control centres in various hospitals throughout the country.
To a question the Minister said that a pharmaceutical manufacturing unit is being set up in Lahore in collaboration with an Argentinean company with an investment of one billion rupees. This unit has started trial manufacturing of drugs to treat hepatitis, liver cirrhosis, cancer and diabetes while its commercial production would start by June this year.
He said the government spent over Rs 29 billion on various health projects during the last two years which include EPI, Family Planning, malaria, AIDS, TB, blindness, hepatitis, swine flu and bird flu control programmes. Shahab provided details that during 2009-10 the international donors agencies like Global Funds for AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation, Japanese International Co-operation Agency (JICA) and Department for International Development (DFID), UK have committed support for the health sector.
Minister for Social Welfare and Special Education Samina Khalid Ghurki said that there are total 316 NGOs running schemes for the welfare of Children, senior citizens and disabled persons in the country and the government has provided them funds amounting Rs 168.230 million since 2004. Out of these 318 NGOs, 114 are working in Punjab, 87 in Sindh, 42 in NWFP, 15 in Balochistan, 22 in AJK, 16 in Gilgit-Baltistan and 22 in Islamabad.
The Minister further informed the House that the Ministry is preparing a PC-I for the project "Setting up of Operational Unit for Eradication of Beggary." In a written reply Foreign Ministry informed the House that as many as 18 non-career diplomats are working in different countries including the United States, UK, UAE, New York, Tehran, Saudi Arabia, Brussels, India, Malaysia and Damascus.