ISLAMABAD: A spokesperson for the National Assembly of Pakistan said this week parliament would deploy rat traps and had allocated a budget and begun digitizing its archives to protect important official documents from rats that had overrun the building.

The latest rat problem at the National Assembly building came to light after an official committee recently asked to see the records of meetings from 2008, which were found to have been badly gnawed by rats. The pests had also caused damage to CCTV and Internet cables and usually appeared at night when the building was vacant.

Authorities subsequently allocated Rs1.2 million ($4,320) to combat the problem and published newspaper advertisements to identify pest control companies, receiving interest from two firms.

“To safeguard records, the National Assembly has initiated the digitization of its archives,” Zafar Sultan, the director general of media at the assembly, told Arab News, saying the rat infestation was a years-long problem. 

“A tender [for pest companies] is floated every year, this year’s tender was awarded in July,” he added. “The National Assembly administration contacted the Capital Development Authority (CDA), which is responsible for providing services in the Parliament.”

Sultan confirmed that a budget of Rs1.2 million had been allocated for removing rats from the building and a two-person team would handle the task using bait-fillefd rat-catching nets. 

Earlier this week, Sultan told the BBC the rats were “so huge that even cats might be afraid of them.” He said 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.

“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.”

Pakistani TV channel Geo News reported that the Capital Development Authority was mulling employing hunting cats to catch rats in parliament.