LAHORE – MPAs’ attendance issue in the Punjab Assembly remained hot in the assembly’s session on Thursday. Majority of the members, during the full day proceedings, declared it as a ‘humiliation’ and Sanaullah Masti Khel walked out from the assembly in protest.
Provincial Minister for Law and Parliamentary Affairs Rana Sanaullah Khan on a point of order informed that the matter was brought into Punjab chief minister’s notice and he had allowed the purchase of Bio Matrix System to ensure the members’ genuine attendance.”I support the members but fake attendance is also a serious issue,” he added.
Rana said he had asked the treasury member Sheikh Alla-ud-Din to call the concerned for the installation of Bio Matrix System. He said he also noticed some faces in the house that he had not seen before. He however, avoided disclosing the names of the members. Rana’s speech though could not satisfy the opposition member Sanaullah Masti Khel, who walked out of the proceedings. He was later called back by the chair and on his return he said, “I am making it clear that I will not mark the attendance like this.”
Senior parliamentarians including Nazim Shah, Saeed Akbar Niwani and Ali Haider Niazi also supported Masti Khel’s stance but the chair made it clear that the attendance register placed in front of his desk will not be removed.
Rana, on another point of order, responding to the opposition legislator, said PML-N and PPP, when signed the Charter of Democracy (CoD), tendered their apology before the masses for committing mistakes in past but PML-Q still had not offered any apology. He said although Pervez Musharraf abused PML-Q from London but the opposition leaders were still trying to save his skin for their own interests. He said the province was facing crisis owing to those rulers who were claiming to re-elect Musharraf and were still avoiding answering for his ‘abuse’. He clarified he was using less security guards as compared to PML-Q leaders like Moonis Elahi and Chaudhary Shujaat Hussain.
Earlier, opposition members Mohsin Leghari and Seemal Kamran said the government had failed to establish go-downs for the storage of wheat and other commodities. Seemal said government had passed three years of its tenure and now it should stop blaming the previous governments for their wrongdoings. She said the treasury will blame the ex-rulers to hide its own negligence. She also warned them to avoid personal allegations while Leghari said that PML-N leaders especially Rana Sanaullah should not forget the past when they had offered General Zia ul Haq the same seat of the speaker in Punjab Assembly.
