British not our heroes. They came here uninvited: Sanaullah

The Punjab Assembly was disgruntled when during Tuesday’s session treasury member Sheikh Alauddin tabled a resolution demanding road between Kutchery and Neela Gumbad be named after Dr Gottlieb Wilhelm Leitner, former principal of Government College who also laid the foundation stone of Punjab University.

The assembly did not like the notion of naming a road after a Hungarian professor who although served meritoriously in the field of education for the betterment of the masses in this region.

Alauddin tried to prove it to the house that Dr Leitner deserved all the respect since he provided an opportunity for their forefathers to abreast themselves with education in 1800s but the assembly was not happy with naming the road after a non-Muslim.

The treasury member detested the fact that the government was changing the names of various monuments earlier named after sub-continent’s non-Muslim heroes.

“What are we achieving by renaming institutions? We changed the name of Balik Ram Medical College to Fatima Jinnah Medical College and Lawrence Garden to Jinnah Garden. We are not doing any service to anyone by doing this. If we don’t like the names of non-Muslims then why are we educating our future doctors in King Edward Medical College?” he continued explaining paying a tribute to the non-Muslim heroes of the region.

Soon after Alauddin’s speech, Law Minister Rana Sanaullah barged in the discussion saying, “Who invited the British to come to this region and plant their saplings? No one did. We cannot accept them as our heroes. Our heroes are those performed prominently in the fields of social services, civic development and in the freedom movement. Leitner was born in Hungary. He can not be the hero of a Muslim nation.”

Jamaat Islami’s Dr Waseem and Pakistan People’s Party’s Faiza Malik also opposed the resolution and thus the resolution was rejected with majority.

The PA session on Tuesday entertained four resolutions out of which three were unanimously approved. While the assembly rejected naming road after Dr GW Leitner, the House accepted that hepatitis vaccination be made compulsory for children up to the age of five years, Local Body Elections in all cantonment areas be held alongside other areas and beggars be kept in ‘shelter homes’.

LB POLLS IN CANTONMENTS BE HELD SIDE BY SIDE: PPP’s Faiza Malik demanded that Local Body Elections in the cantonment areas be held side by side other civilian areas.

In the resolution, it was demanded of the federal government to hold next Local Government System elections in all the cantonment areas too so that the residents of those localities can also get benefits of Local Government System by electing their own local body representatives. The treasury side did not oppose the resolution and the resolution was adopted unanimously.

HEPATITIS VACCINATION BE MADE COMPULSORY: The resolution tabled by the Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaaf (PTI) legislator Dr Noshin Hamid was also adopted by the House unanimously. In the resolution, it was demanded that vaccination of every child below the age of five years must be declared necessary to avert chances of Hepatitis.

BEGGARS BE KEPT IN BEGGARS’ HOME: Similarly, the resolution moved by treasury member Tahseen Fawad against the menace of beggary was also passed after an amendment. In the resolution, it was demanded that all the beggars must be kept in Beggars’ Homes to control the menace of beggary. It was also said in the resolution that retaining the beggars in these homes is necessary to make them a working organ of the society by giving them proper education and training.

The PTI lawmaker Siddique Khan presented an amendment that ‘Beggars Home’ is not a respectable term and it must be replaced with ‘Shelter Home’. On the occasion, Rana Sanaullah told the house that government with the cooperation of Edhi Welfare Organisation and other NGOs is considering establishing an institution for the welfare of beggars.

ON SPECIAL EDUCATION: The Question Hour in the assembly’s session on Tuesday was on Punjab Special Education Department, during which Punjab Special Education Minister Asif Saeed Manais responded to the queries of lawmakers.

Saeed told the House that the number of special persons in Punjab was 2,284,490 and 237 special education institutions were working in all tehsils under the Special Education Department. Responding to the questions, he said 16 special education institutions were working in Lahore and over Rs 300 million had been set aside for the institutions for year 2012-13, adding that every institution had a pick and drop facility for children.

PROCEEDING’S BOYCOTT AND THE FISH MARKET IT WAS: Meanwhile, the Punjab Assembly Press Gallery boycotted the proceedings at 11:50am in protest against PTI workers’ attack on media persons and a case registered against a private TV channel.

The speaker constituted a committee comprising provincial minister Anwar Shuja Khanzada and PTI MPA Mian Aslam Iqbal to pacify the journalists and bring them back. The journalists returned at 12:30 pm.

During the assembly proceedings, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and PTI made the assembly a chaotic house as both were leveling accusations of bullying and torturing journalists. During the whole disturbance, the PA Speaker Rana Muhammad Iqbal looked helpless to control the situation as nobody was ready to abide by his rulings.

However, the situation turned normal after expelling the treasury’s female lawmaker Rukhsana from the house for five minutes over raising a placard inscribed: ‘Jew Agent’.

While answering a question on PTI’s torture on journalists, Punjab Law Minister Rana Sanaullah said that if PTI Punjab president would not offer arrest, he would be arrested as per law and then would go through an interrogation process to get the names of his companions in the torture incident.

During the debate, PTI kept insisting that journalists were protesting against Baluchistan government’s act of registering a case against a private TV channel, while treasury members kept saying that journalists were protesting against PTI’s torture on journalists.

Later, the session was adjourned for Wednesday at 10am.