The special monitoring committee constituted by the Punjab Chief Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif, to ensure an effective implementation of the Punjab Marriage Function Ordinance 2016 at all levels met today under the chairmanship of the Punjab Additional Chief Secretary Shamail Ahmad Khawaja, at Civil Secretariat Lahore.
The chief minister has assigned a special committee to formulate an institutional mechanism for the enforcement of this ordinance. Lahore Commissioner Abdullah Khan Sumbal, Secretary Local Government Muhammad Aslam Kamboh, Additional Secretary S&GAD Ashiq Hussain Aulakh, SP Security Ibadat Nissar, Deputy Secretary (Judicial) Home Department Bilal Ilyas, ADC Lahore Ms Sundas Arshad, Monitoring Officer (Regulations) Syed Ali Abbas, ACCP to Commissioner Lahore Aslam Shahid and Director Law Salahuddin participated in the meeting.
The meeting decided to constitute a sub-committee comprising of Lahore Division Commissioner Abdullah Khan Sumbal, Punjab Local Government Special Secretary Shahid Nasr Raja and SP Security Ibadat Nissar that will analyse the data of complaints regarding the violations of the Punjab Marriage Function Ordinance 2016 and will fix the responsibility and identify of those government functionaries who failed to control various violations of Marriage Function Ordinance 2016. The subcommittee will recommend action against such officials on the case to case basis.
The attendees of the meeting decided that such sub-committees will also be constituted at other divisional headquarters of the province so that action and legal enquiries against the violators could be taken on a regular basis and implementers of Punjab Marriage Function Ordinance be streamlined in letter and spirit.
Punjab Additional Chief Secretary Shamail Ahmad Khawaja told the concerned individuals that there should be no discrimination between ordinary people and the residents of posh areas in this regard. The Punjab ACS has also stated that the Police will penalise owners and managers of marriage halls and those of catering businesses on account of violations of law including over timings, aerial firing, violations regarding sound system beyond the limit and serving more than one dish at a wedding.
