The Meeting of the Senate Standing Committee on Kashmir Affairs and Gilgit Baltistan was held on Friday at Parliament House.
The meeting was chaired by Senator Sajid Mir and was attended by Senator Sherry Rehman, Senator Falak Naz, Senator Irfan Ul Haq Siddiqui, Senator Muhammad Qasim, Senator Shahadat Awan, and senior officers of the Ministry of Kashmir Affairs Gilgit Baltistan, Government of Gilgit Baltistan and the Government of Azad Jammu and Kashmir.
The agenda before the Committee pertained to PSDP budget utilization from 1st January to 30 June, 2022 and implementation status regarding various issues taken up in previous meetings.
The Committee also discussed the status of Glacial Lake Outbursts Floods (GLOF) in Gilgit Baltistan; especially with reference to the latest GLOF inci-dent in Skardu and measures taken by the Govern-ment to curb these.
The meeting commenced with a discussion on the latest situation in Indian Illegally Occupied Kash-mir (IIOK) especially with regards to the sentenc-ing of Yasin Malik. The Committee showed concern towards the government’s lax attitude towards the issue and stressed the need for a concrete plan to address the issue internationally. Speaking about the recent GLOF incident in G&B, Minister for Climate Change, Senator Sherry Rehman stressed the need for the government to step up measures to deal with this issue head-on. —NNI