LAHORE – The 23rd session of the Punjab Assembly (PA) will be held on Friday (today) under the chair of PA Speaker Rana Muhammad Iqbal amidst strict security arrangements. The house proceedings will start at 3:00 pm and soon after the recitation of the holy verses from the Quran and Naat, the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) will make its maiden entry as opposition after being a part of the Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N)-led government for the period of over three years.
COMPLETING 100 DAYS: Besides question hour and government business, privilege motions, adjournment motions and call attention notice will also be a part of the agenda for Friday.
This 23rd session will continue for about over 15 days, to meet the constitutional requirement of 100 days. The PA had already worked for 80 days during its previous 22 sessions. The remaining 20 days are supposed to be completed before April 09, 2011. After this session, the assembly will meet again in the first week of April. The general discussions kept pending and could not be concluded.
PRE-BUDGET SESSION: A pre-budget session had also took place on the demand of the members of both treasury and opposition to dispel the impression that only the bureaucracy made the budget in which the members could not contribute comprehensively in January 2011. Although the March session was expected as the pre-budget session in which the all the elected members supposed to submit their suggestions relating to the fiscal budget 2011-12 but it seems that after parting ways the house may reflect more heated debates this time.
tight SECURITY ARRANGEMENTS: The PA speaker in the light of an intelligence report that states that holding of the evening sessions could create security issues directed strict security arrangements. The speaker also chaired a special meeting to review the arrangements.
PRE-SESSION MEETINGS: Before the house proceedings on Friday, business advisory meeting will also take place under the chair of the PA speaker. The meeting will discuss and finalize the issues relating to the house business as official and private. The parliamentary meeting of all the political forces with their representatives in the house will also take place to finalize the strategy for the upcoming session. In this regard the meeting of the earlier main opposition party PML-Q is also expected very important in the light of PPP entry as opposition.
The insiders said that the PML-Q MPAs in their parliamentary meeting would finalise their role as opposition in the presence of PPP. A lot is being expected from the PPP’s out spoken MPA Raja Riaz, who had enjoyed the status of a senior minister under the umbrella of PML-N led government.
IMPORTANT FOR THE GOVT: This session is equally important for the PML-N leadership as it will be a tough experience for them facing PPP’s aggression. It was Musharraf led regime that forced PPP and PML-N to play a joint role of opposition and now after about 12 years PPP will again act as opposition.Provincial Law Minister Rana Sanaullah said that the government aimed at some important legislation besides its routine business. He said, owing to the security reasons, the media persons are also requested to display their accreditation cards issued by the PA.
