As many as six bills were passed with simple majority during the government business in the 24th session of Punjab Assembly on Wednesday.
The ruling Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N) could manage to take up the government business after a gap of two days as the earlier sessions of the week were marred with lack of quorum and dismal interest of the lawmakers.
The earlier sittings of the assembly could last hardly an hour and were adjourned because of the lack of quorum. On Wednesday again, the quorum was pointed out twice by the opposition lawmakers but the government managed to meet the minimum required presence of lawmakers to run the proceedings of the house.
During the government business, Punjab Local Government (Fifth Amendment) Bill 2016, Punjab Agriculture, Food and Drug Authority (Amendment) Bill 2016, Infrastructure Development Authority of the Punjab (Amendment) Bill 2016, Punjab Maintenance of Public Order (Amendment) Bill 2016, Punjab Blood Transfusion Safety Bill 2016 and Punjab Poultry Production Bill 2016 were passed with simple majority.
Moreover, another bill ‘The Forman Christian College, Lahore (Amendment) Bill 2016’ was introduced in the house and it was referred to the standing committee of education seeking its report within two months. Two resolutions were also passed to give extension to two ordinances. The extended ordinances include ‘Provincial Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Ordinance 2016’ and ‘Punjab Agriculture, Food and Drug Authority (Amendment) Ordinance 2016’. All the bills and resolutions were moved by Minister for Human Rights and Minority affairs Khalil Tahir Sindhu as the law minister was absent from the house.
Soon after the end of question-answer session, Leader of the Opposition Mian Mehmood ur Rashid started chanting slogans against the prime minister and alleged that he is trying to malign the institution of army.
“The leaked newspaper is still alive and the prime minister has started giving statements against the army,” Rashid said, while speaking on a point of order. He further said that the government has failed to identify the person who leaked the story carried in the newspaper.
According to Rashid, the PM was pointing out towards the army when he recently said in a speech that my opponents are beating the drums. “It is an insult to our martyrs that their institution is being maligned by the sitting prime minister,” he said before staging a walk out.
Earlier in the day, answers related to the communication and works department were answered by Provincial Minister for Communication and Works Tanveer Aslam Malik.
“The department has claimed that the life of a road built in Gujranwala will be 10 years but cracks have started appearing on the road in just four years,” Ashraf Ali Ansari, a ruling lawmaker from Gujranwala, said and urged the minister to take notice of the issue.
Deputy Speaker Sardar Sher Ali Gorchani, who was chairing the session, urged the minister to take notice of a dilapidated road in district Rajanpur, the home constituency of the deputy speaker.
The session will resume today (Thursday).