The House on Wednesday passed a unanimous resolution strongly condemning desecration of the Holy Quran in Norway.

Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Ali Muhammad Khan presented the resolution.

It said that deliberate putting Muslims' holy book on fire is not less than terrorism and provocation, hurting the sentiments of Muslim Ummah.

The resolution demanded of the government to continuously highlight that how much Muslims' sentiments get hurt over such incidents.

It also paid rich tribute to Muslim youth Omar who bravely stopped the person, attempting to burn a copy of the Holy Quran in Norway.

The National Assembly was informed on Wednesday that Pakistan has improved its position on ease of doing business index and has jumped to 108th position as compared to 136th position last year out of total 190 economies.

Parliamentary Secretary for Finance Zain Hussain Qureshi informed the house that World Bank has placed Pakistan in the top ten best performers in ease of doing business.

He said Moody's has improved Pakistan's economic outlook from negative to stable which is a great achievement of the economic policies of the government.

Zain Qureshi said the government is taking a number of steps to improve country's competitive ranking.

Zain Hussain Qureshi said a variety of smuggled goods have been confiscated in the country by Pakistan Customs. These include tea, auto parts, cigarettes, medicines, antiques, crockery, vehicles, cloth, electronic goods.

He said the confiscated goods are disposed of through open public auction.

He said goods like confiscated narcotics and expired, banned, hazardous items, not fit for human consumption are destroyed. 

To a question, Parliamentary Secretary for Commerce Aliya Hamza Malik said China has offered favourable concession to Pakistan, which includes elimination of tariffs on 313 tariff lines.

She said effective safeguard measures have been taken to protect domestic products.

Four bills were introduced in the House today.

These include The Port Qasim Authority (Amendment) Bill, 2019,  The surveying and Mapping (Amendment) Bill, 2019,  The Gwadar Port Authority (Amendment) Bill, 2019 and The Privatization Commission (Amendment) Bill, 2019.

China Pakistan Economic Corridor Authority Ordinance 2019 was also laid before the House.

The Deputy Speaker referred Bills and the Ordinance to the concerned Standing Committees of the House.

Earlier, when the National Assembly started its session at the Parliament House in Islamabad, the newly elected member of the National Assembly from Balochistan Nawabzada Shahzain Bugti took oath of his membership of the Lower House.

Deputy Speaker Qasim Suri administered the oath.

The session has been adjourned to meet again tomorrow at four in the afternoon.

(Akram/Imran)