The 30th Punjab Assembly session in the wake of heated debate over Shahbaz Taseer’s abduction, deteriorating peace and creation of new province in the South Punjab is likely to take place in the second week of September amid reports that both the opposition and the treasury have chalked out their respective strategies to counter each other’s moves in the House, Pakistan Today learned on Friday. The Punjab Assembly sources said that according to the constitution, the speaker was bound to convene the session within 14 days of the requisition submitted by a certain number of legislators to discuss issues seeking immediate attention brought to the house.
They said the PPP deputy parliamentary leader in the Punjab Assembly Shaukat Basra, with the signatures of 103 party lawmakers, had submitted the requisition in the assembly secretariat last Tuesday to convene a session to discuss the “Two Point Agenda”. They said that the PPP lawmakers wanted to discuss the Shahbaz Taseer kidnapping and South Punjab issue. However, some other important public issues would also be tabled in the house, they added. The PPP sources told Pakistan Today that brainstorming within the political allies at opposition benches had begun to prepare a combined strategy to highlight the efforts of the PPP and PML-Q leaders for the empowerment of people of South Punjab. They claimed that even the lawmakers of treasury benches from Saraiki belt had signaled that they would not directly oppose the resolution of a new province.
PPP deputy parliamentary leader Shoukat Basra told Pakistan Today that time had come for the accountability of those who had been profiting from the hard work of the people of South Punjab. He said the PPP Punjab had also decided to table the kidnapping of ex-governor Salman Taseer’s son in the Punjab Assembly and for the purpose, he himself had already submitted a call-attention notice to question the Punjab chief minister over the issue. In the notice, Basra said, he had inquired over the progress in Shahbaz Taseer’s abduction case.
