ISLAMABAD: Authorities in Pakistan’s federal capital have allocated Rs1.2 million ($4,320) to combat a rat infestation in the building of the country’s lower house of parliament, the BBC reported on Wednesday, with the pests having gnawed away at important official documents.
The rat problem at the National Assembly building came to light after an official committee asked to see the records of meetings from 2008, which were found to have been badly gnawed by rats.
“The rats on this floor are so huge that even cats might be afraid of them,” National Assembly spokesman Zafar Sultan told the BBC, saying most of the rats could be found on the first floor, which houses the building’s food hall, as well as the office of the senate opposition leader. Most meetings of political parties and standing committees also take place here.
Sultan said the rats generally kept themselves out of sight until people left the building.
“When there are usually no people here in the evening, the rats run around in there like it’s a marathon,” the BBC quoted Sultan as saying. “The staff posted there are now used to this, but if someone comes here for the first time, they get scared.”
The BBC said Pakistani authorities had published newspapers advertisements to identify pest control companies and received interest from two firms.
Pakistani TV channel Geo News reported that the Capital Development Authority was mulling employing hunting cats to catch rats in parliament.
‘It’s a marathon’: Pakistan allocates budget to fight rat infestation in parliament
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‘It’s a marathon’: Pakistan allocates budget to fight rat infestation in parliament
- Rat problem at National Assembly came to light after records of meetings from 2008 were found to have been badly gnawed
- “The rats are so huge that even cats might be afraid of them,” National Assembly spokesman Zafar Sultan tells the BBC
Pakistani forces kill 24 militants in restive province bordering Afghanistan
- The militants were killed in separate intelligence-based operations in Orakzai and Khyber districts of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province
- Pakistan witnessed a 28 percent increase in militant attacks in Jan., with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa accounting for 38 out of 87 attacks nationwide
ISLAMABAD: Security forces have killed 24 Pakistani Taliban militants in two separate engagements in Pakistan’s northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province, the Pakistani military said on Friday.
In recent years, Pakistan has witnessed a surge in militant attacks, mainly by the Pakistani Taliban, or the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), targeting security forces and police in KP, which borders Afghanistan.
The militants were killed in intelligence-based operations in KP’s Orakzai and Khyber districts conducted on reports about their presence, according to the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), the military’s media wing.
“Sanitization operations are being conducted to eliminate any other Indian-sponsored kharji [TTP militant] found in the area,” the ISPR said.
There was no immediate response by New Delhi to the Pakistani military’s statement.
Pakistan recorded a 28 percent increase in militant attacks in Jan. as compared to the previous month, with 87 incidents occurring across the country, the Islamabad-based Pakistan Institute for Conflict and Security Studies (PICSS) said in its report this month. Of these, 38 attacks took place in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 27 in Balochistan, where authorities have been battling a separatist insurgency, and two in the Punjab province.
Islamabad has frequently accused Afghanistan of allowing its soil and India of backing militant groups, including the TTP, for attacks against Pakistan. Kabul and New Delhi have consistently denied this.
