The session of Punjab Assembly lasted just for forty-five minutes on Monday because of lack of quorum as 137 members of the house both from the treasury and opposition benches were suspended by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP).
According to a notification issued by the ECP, as many as 137 members of the provincial assembly of the Punjab were suspended because of non-submission of their statements of assets and liabilities. Every lawmaker is bound to submit the statement of assets and liabilities to the ECP before 30th of September every year. According to the details, 115 members of ruling Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N) were suspended including three ministers. Minister for Food Bilal Yasin, Minister for Women Development Hameeda Waheed ud Din and Minister for Excise and Taxation Mian Mujtaba Shuja ur Rehman are no more members of the house. The memberships of 12 parliamentary secretaries have also been suspended by the ECP. The suspended parliamentary secretaries are Raja Muhammad Awais Khalid (Zakat and Ushr), Haji Muhammad Ilyas Ansari (Bait ul Maal and Social Welfare), Muhammad Nawaz Chohan (Transport), Ch Muhammad Asadullah (Food), Nawabzada Haider Mehdi (Management and Professional Development), Ramzan Siddique Bhatti (Local Government and Community Development), Ali Asghar Manda (S&GAD), Mian Muhammad Munir (Excise and Taxation), Amir Hayat Haraj (Mines and Minerals), Mian Naveed Ali (Labor and Human Resource), Ch Zahid Akram (Colonies) and Shaheen Ashfaq (Cooperatives).
From the Opposition benches, 15 members were suspended from the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), 3 from Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid and 1 from Pakistan People’s Party. It is pertinent to mention here that the membership of leader of the Opposition Mian Mehmood-ur-Rashid was also suspended because of non-submission of the statement of asset and liabilities. Not a single member of PTI from Lahore could secure his seat as all the four members of the party from the provincial capital were suspended by the ECP. The suspended members of PTI from Lahore are Mian Mehmood ur Rashid, Mian Aslam Iqbal, Shoaib Siddiqui and Murad Rass.
Earlier in the day, the session was started after a delay of nearly two hours from its scheduled timed of 3 PM and answers related to Human Rights and Minority Affairs were given in the house. A female lawmaker from PTI Nausheen Hamid said that the ministry has given wrong figures of transgenders living in Punjab. She claimed that there are nearly 20,000 transgenders in only Lahore and Kasur but the minister is quoting the figure of 2467 in the whole province. “A survey was conducted recently by the Social Welfare department and it was found that there are 2467 registered transgenders in the province,” minister for Human Rights and Minority Affairs Khalil Tahir Sindhu said. He was of the view that most of the people from this community are reluctant to register themselves otherwise the department has no issue in their registrations.
The answers related to the ministry of Food were not given as both the concerned minister and parliamentary secretary could not come to the house because of their suspension.
Interestingly, a ruling party lawmaker from Faisalabad Mian Tahir said on a point of order that the goons of law minister Rana Sanaullah Khan have besieged his house for the last fifteen days. “I was assaulted four times in the past by some unidentified persons and these unidentified persons have confessed after their arrest that they assaulted me on the behest of Rana Sanaullah,” the lawmaker said and requested the chair to provide him security. He wanted to reveal something more but was barred to speak by the deputy speaker Sardar Sher Ali Gorchani, who was chairing the session at that time. “The law minister is not here in the house and we postpone this issue till his arrival,” Gorchani said. The session will resume on Tuesday.